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2018-10-10 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Thousands evacuated after explosions at Ukrainian ammo depot

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Posted by Fred 2018-10-10 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 ...It's been my experience that Slavic explosives safety protocols are...ummm...sketchy.

The Severomorsk Disaster in 1984 pretty much wiped out the ammo reserves for the Soviet Atlantic Fleet - had they gone to war, they pretty much would have fought with what they had on the ships, there would have been no reloads. Among other things that contributed to the accident:

*Explosives quantity/distance rules were routinely violated.
*Magazine doors often could not be closed due to poor construction, and in some cases frustrated weapons crews just took the damn doors off.
*Traffic in a bomb dump is supposed to go one-way at VERY low speed limits in order to avoid the possibility of collisions. Severomorsk didn't do that (unclear as to whether or not they were ignoring policy or never had the policy in the first place) and according to the report I saw in the late 80s, two explosives laden trucks did in fact collide at a fairly good clip...right in front of one of those mags that didn't have doors.

Hilarity ensued.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2018-10-10 05:57|| 2018-10-10 05:57|| Front Page Top

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