The popular Discovery Channel program MythBusters accidentally fired a cannonball into a California neighborhood on Tuesday. Luckily, and quite amazingly, no one was injured.

The projectile was supposed to hit a wall of garbage cans filled with water at an explosives firing range in Dublin, CA. Instead, it sailed over the garbage cans, burst through a concrete wall, ricocheted off a hillside, flew 700 yards, passed completely through the front door and walls of a home, bounced across a six-lane road, bounced off the roof of another house, and finally shattered the window of a parked minivan and landed inside.

Hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who reportedly were not present when the cannon was fired, met with families in the neighborhood to apologize profusely and express their concern. They described it as the worst thing that has happened in eight years and thousands of experiments while producing the show.

A spokesperson for the local law enforcement, which oversees the firing range, said that the cannon had been used more than 50 times without incident.

The myth being tested was whether a stone cannonball could crush the wall of a castle. The MythBusters team was testing a regular steel cannonball first for comparison.

Episodes of MythBusters usually display layer upon layer of safety measures, from protective barriers to emergency personnel on site.

The public may never have a chance to see what really happened that day: Savage promised the families affected that the program would never show the footage of the ill-fated cannon fire.

What do you think? Are you a fan? Are the MythBusters reckless or just unlucky this time?

Bookmark to: