Yesterday afternoon yet another explosion rocked the VOP munitions plant in Novaky, killing one man and injuring three more after a hermetically sealed pouch of grenades exploded when being handled.
The explosion happened around 1.15 pm is being investigated as the crime of posing a general threat, but so far the details of what happened are unknown, said PM Iveta Radicova after she had visited the site of the explosion. Radicova also informed that the remaining grenades would be sent back to the manufacturer.
The URG-86 hand grenades went off when a 42-yr old worker at the plant was handling them, the last thing he was to do as he did not survive the blast. Three more workers suffered mild injuries, but one of them had to undergo a minor operation and is still in Bojnice Hospital, expected to be released tomorrow. In March 2007 the plant witnessed its worst accident ever, when a hall exploded killing eight and injuring 20 more.
Another year on and another grenade “accident”. Staffed by lemmings?
George was right and has support as right ??
Heavens , what will the locals do …
1. Have a sudden impairment of neurological function, especially that resulting from a cerebral hemorrhage; a stroke.
2. Have a sudden effusion of blood into an organ or tissue.
3. Have a fit of extreme anger; rage.
Yep ………………..APOPLEXY !!!!
I was’nt here for the big bang in 2007 but from what I have seen of news footage that was an accident waiting to happen. No ECMs ( Earth Covered Magazines), no blast barriers etc. If, as your mate relates, they were storing end of shelf life ammo there in the hope of earning a few bob then your right – the dim-wits who made that decision are guilty of manslaughter at least – where was Trnka – head up someones butt?
I bow to a man with greater knowledge than me, on the silly playing with grenade front …My Pal in the army here gave me the on the wireinfo, as we went for a beer last night.
The Big Bang of 2007 , was caused by soldiers messing around, if the truth be told . I know the Army Chiefs tried to get rid of a lot of, near end of date shells and other Ordinance a few years ago, to foreign parts ( Arabs etc ) for test firing and training , but Micky and his SDKU crew said they had to sell it, as it was national asset …No one wanted it , and it was over stored in the VOP and of course there was far too much in just one place ….and then boom .
Then the Politics , blame the Army guys for a over stock situation , they created by greed !
I think your info is correct George M. I don’t know of any military that stores grenades in a primed ( ready to use) state. The fuse assemblies are not fitted to the main body until required for use and, because of their dangerous nature. they are stored seperately.
The SK press don’t help – they report anything that goes bang as a granat – mortar bomb, arty shell, aircraft bomb etc. but I can think of four scenarios that led to this accident:
1. A faulty fuse assembly detonated in its storage container – but this is unlikely to have caused fatal injuries as the containers are designed to direct the small blast upwards unless of course it was’nt in a container!.. Mechanical failure of fuse assemblies due to corrosion points to poor storage conditions. Premature detonation could have been caused by external heat but at this time of year that would seem improbable, unless they had a fire in the store.
2. Worker was “pissing about” with a fuse assembly, physically handling it – would cause injury but not fatal unless he had it in his mouth! and would not injure those nearby.
3. A faulty fuse assembly fitted to the main charge detonated either by mechanical failure or “pissing about”. In which case the workers had assembled and primed the grenade and are therefore contenders for the Darwin Awards.
4. They were handling primed grenades, in which case, the SK military take no notice of the NATO Manual on Storage of Ammunition – AASTP-1 or the OSCE Best Practice for the Management of Conventional Ammunition and store and transport munitions in a primed state and incidents like this one will happen again, not only endangering ammo store workers but members of the general public.
Manufacturing fault? – I don’t buy this.
Stupidity at every level – more likely!
errrm, my info is they were pissing around and the pin got pulled out by mistake. A hermetically sealed pouch of grenades exploded when being handled ???
`~~~ is being investigated as the crime of posing a general threat, but so far the details of what happened are unknown, said PM Iveta Radicova after she had visited the site of the explosion. Radicova also informed that the remaining grenades would be sent back to the manufacturer.~~~~
SO a crime is be investigated , but no one knows what happened ? What a load of old bullshite. Another Radicova cover up . Or perhaps she pressed the button by error as she did in Parliament ?
How Slovak to blame someone else , ie the manufacturer, for normal Slovak stupidity !