Construction workers discovered a 1,000-pound World War II-era bomb Tuesday near the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport, prompting evacuations until officials determined the ordnance was inert.
Sheriff Al Nienhuis, with the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, said a construction company found a “very old” Mark 65 bomb while working on the future site of the Wilton Simpson Technical College campus in the northeast corner of the airport.
In a video message posted on Facebook, Nienhuis said the bomb was so “so rusted and decayed” that there was no way of telling if the bomb was active or not. The potentially explosive discovery enacted evacuations of about half a mile in all directions and a temporary road closure.
The Citrus County Bomb Squad responded to the scene and determined the bomb was inactive.
The Mark 65 is a general-purpose bomb that the military used as far back as World War II to blast reinforced targets like dams and concrete or steel railroad bridges, according to the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
A team from the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa is expected to help dispose of the ordnance.
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