ScottWashburn | 02 Apr 2014 9:35 a.m. PST |
link Tragic, but come on! Reminds me of a story a friend in the National Park Service told me. He is an ordnance expert and he gets a call from a guy who has dug up an intact CW artillery projectile. He says that he wants to make sure it's harmless so he's got the thing set up on his drill press and wants to know where he ought to drill into it. My friend screams: "Stop!" into the phone :) |
d effinger | 02 Apr 2014 9:41 a.m. PST |
More like culling the heard too. ;) Don |
leidang | 02 Apr 2014 9:56 a.m. PST |
There's a briish guy on youtube that goes all over Europe with his metal detector digging up WWII antiques. In one of the videos he finds a dirt and rust encrusted grenade and just decides to pull the pin and throw it to see what happens. Nothing happens, but he then decides to leave it laying in the forest because it is too dangerous to take it with him. No worries about who might find it next!!!! |
jpattern2 | 02 Apr 2014 10:36 a.m. PST |
Leidang, after 70 years I'm sure there's no ch-
|
Dan Cyr | 02 Apr 2014 10:44 a.m. PST |
Sorry, just sad. If they did not know what it was and they were poor, then they were just trying to make some money selling scrap metal. No Darwin Award here, folks. Dan |
kallman | 02 Apr 2014 10:55 a.m. PST |
Yes just sad but also demonstrates that common sense is not common. |
ScottWashburn | 02 Apr 2014 10:58 a.m. PST |
Anyone who knows enough to use a cutting torch ought to know better than to cut into a sealed metal cylinder of unknown origins and content. Even if it wasn't a bomb it still might have held something flammable or explosive or toxic. |
Lion in the Stars | 02 Apr 2014 11:04 a.m. PST |
"Bangkok scrap workers killed opening suspected WW2 bomb with blow torch" Who the [expletives deleted] is dumb enough to cut open a 500lb bomb with a cutting torch?!?!? |
Mako11 | 02 Apr 2014 11:09 a.m. PST |
Sounds like we've got a winner, or winners to me. At the very least, they should be entered into this year's running, and receive honorable mention. |
Who asked this joker | 02 Apr 2014 11:27 a.m. PST |
Wow. Took 1 man to kill 7, wound 19 and destroy a building. Not exactly "funny." |
chriskrum | 02 Apr 2014 11:42 a.m. PST |
They're not very recognizable as bombs after they've been buried for decades. Also, they were probably doing what they were told to do by their bosses. |
Ron W DuBray | 02 Apr 2014 11:52 a.m. PST |
makes me wounder what type of explosive only gun powder and gun cotton explode when set on fire. That I know of. most all the rest just burn with lots of nice colors. They need an impact/pressure to set them off. |
Phrodon | 02 Apr 2014 12:04 p.m. PST |
Anyone who knows enough to use a cutting torch ought to know better than to cut into a sealed metal cylinder of unknown origins and content. Even if it wasn't a bomb it still might have held something flammable or explosive or toxic. They just concluded a Coronor's Inquest here about a high school student who was killed cutting into an old drum. Just a few millilitres of liquid (converted to vapour) caused the explosion. That's all it takes. I could not even image cutting into a bomb. Here is some good CCTV of cutting into an oil drum with subsequent explosion. link Mike |
Steve Wilcox | 02 Apr 2014 12:34 p.m. PST |
makes me wounder what type of explosive only gun powder and gun cotton explode when set on fire. That I know of. most all the rest just burn with lots of nice colors. They need an impact/pressure to set them off. IIRC, old explosives can become very unstable and years of the explosive filler interacting with the metal of their casing can lead to them going off pretty easily when disturbed. |
vtsaogames | 02 Apr 2014 1:22 p.m. PST |
I would think they can get pretty unstable with age. Farmers still get killed in northern France by WWI ordnance that turns up in their fields. |
bakblast | 02 Apr 2014 6:21 p.m. PST |
When I was in third grade (1968) some kids my age at the time were playing with what they thought was a dud 76mm HE shell in my home town. It wasn't. 3 8 year olds and a 9 year old never got any older after that. |
carne68 | 02 Apr 2014 8:37 p.m. PST |
A friend of mine was on the EOD team at Camp Lejeune. He lost a finger and part of another while dealing with a 10lb Parrot Rifle shell from the Bentonville battlefield. |
Twilight Samurai | 02 Apr 2014 9:38 p.m. PST |
It's poor people trawling WWII wrecks for scrap too. link |
Phrodon | 03 Apr 2014 7:00 a.m. PST |
It's poor people trawling WWII wrecks for scrap too. I always thought any military wreck was off limits (e.g. international law, etc). But is this ship unprotected because it is in Indonesian waters? |
myrm11 | 03 Apr 2014 7:49 a.m. PST |
The comment in the article is that the Perth hasn't been listed as a War Grave nor have either Australia nor Indonesia are party to the relevant UNESCO Convention that would let either protect it despite that. |
Phrodon | 03 Apr 2014 12:26 p.m. PST |
I guess I am missing something under international law. From the article here: link Respect for perpetual title and sovereign rights in sunken sovereign vessels is deeply embedded and broadly respected in international law. Take for example the Protocol Concerning Cooperation in Combating Pollution Emergencies in the South Pacific Region (Emergency Protocol) under consideration by South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) nations.14 Supporting the Protocol is the SPREP "Regional Strategy to Address Marine Pollution from World War II Wrecks,"15 containing broad recognition of the applicable international law principles. "Internationally, there is currently no multi-lateral legal instrument governing the ownership of sunken warships or military aircraft. However there is a well-developed body of customary international law governing the treatment of sunken warships and military aircraft. "The Law of the Sea Convention, Articles 95-96 and also the 1958 High Seas Convention Articles 8-9, state that warships, naval auxiliaries, and other vessels owned and operated by a state and used at the time they sank only on government non-commercial service, are defined as "state vessels." International Law recognizes that state vessels, and their associated cargoes, whether or not sunken, are entitled to sovereign immunity. |