(Newser)
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The Army is investigating how a dummy Hellfire missile managed to become detached from an Apache helicopter to fall in a Texas neighborhood on Tuesday. A soldier's kids spotted the missile as it fell into a field around 8pm and told their dad, who contacted the military. Some 100 homes in Killeen, near Fort Hood, were evacuated for close to an hour while Army technicians examined the missile and determined it was inert, reports AP.
The training missile left a hole in the ground four feet deep. "Safety is always our No. 1 concern, and we regret the inconvenience to the families affected in the area," a Fort Hood aviation officer said in a statement. "We want to reassure the public that our military aircraft never fly off the installation with live munitions." The missile had no warhead or propulsion system, and was not intended to be launched.
