Editing Cooking off (section)

== Missiles and air-dropped bombs ==
The risk of aircraft armament cooking off is a significant hazard during pre-flight operations, especially for [[aircraft carrier]]s. Fuel fires, which can spread across the flight deck rapidly and engulf many aircraft, are the most serious risk. This was a significant contributor to the [[1967 USS Forrestal fire|1967 fire disaster]] aboard the {{USS|Forrestal|CV-59|6}}, when such a fire (set off by an inadvertently fired [[Zuni (rocket)|Zuni rocket]] striking the [[fuel tank]]s of a waiting [[A-4 Skyhawk]]) detonated two [[unguided bomb]]s of [[Korean War]] vintage which had been loaded onto the stricken bomber, rupturing the fuel tanks of adjacent aircraft and setting off a chain reaction of similarly cooked off bombs. Because of the age and condition of the first two bombs, the fire safety crew was unable to cool them before they cooked off, which should have been possible for contemporary weapons with higher cook-off temperatures.

A different sort of cook-off event was the trigger for the [[USS Enterprise_fire|1969 explosion and fire]] aboard the {{USS|Enterprise| CVN-65}}, which also involved a Zuni rocket. During this event, the exhaust from an MD-3A "Huffer" [[Ground support equipment#Air Start Unit|Air Start Unit (ASU)]] overheated the warhead of a Zuni that was mounted on a parked aircraft, causing it to cook off. As with the ''Forrestal'' disaster, this led to procedural and equipment changes, specifically regarding ASUs.