The Ground Self-Defense Force announced Monday that insufficient safety checks and an incorrect amount of gunpowder may have caused the accidental firing Friday of a 155 mm howitzer shell over a hot spring resort in Fukushima Prefecture.
The errant shell may have been fired with five rods of gunpowder loaded in its cartridge, according to Northeast Area Army officials. The correct amount is two rods.
There are five different sizes of gunpowder rods used by the SDF, with the number and size of rods subject to change depending on target distance, they added.
The shell was mistakenly fired outside a GSDF firing range and crashed into a mountainside after flying over the Futamata Onsen resort. With 110 visitors staying at the resort at the time of the accident, the shell could have caused a massive disaster had it hit the area.