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Full-Text Articles in Defense and Security Studies
Ddasaccident463, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident463, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Details of this accident have been withheld by the demining NGO that employed the Victim. A spreadsheet including the Victim’s name and very brief details of the accident was made available in 2007. Some details can be inferred from the information released. For example, the injury implies that the victim’s visor was not being worn in the correct manner, and the loss of one eye and severe injury to the other implies a severe facial injury.
Ddasaccident384, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident384, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On 18th Apr 2002 one of our deminers activated a small AP mine while he was excavating the ground. The deminer had excavated almost half of the lane along the base stick when the explosion happened.
Ddasaccident501, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident501, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At approx. 0855 Hrs on Tuesday 11th September 2001 the deminer [the Victim] was fatally injured while performing manual demining duties for [International demining NGO]. The accident was caused by the accidental detonation of Pt Mi Ba III anti-tank mine. It should be noted that the casualty had been accepted to participate in the next Team Leaders course. At the commencement of the shift he was congratulated by all members of GS8 for being accepted for a demining team leader course. He was extremely happy on the day of the accident. He was married with one child and had no …
Ddasaccident311, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident311, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was conducting a “full-excavation” drill wearing a protective vest (RBR), a full-face visor with headband, and gloves. He was using a gardening tool/hand trowel and as he worked, he activated an M14 mine with the trowel.
Ddasaccident306, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident306, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was squatting while carrying out a “full excavation clearance” drill in the lane. He was using an unauthorised digging tool when he detonated a VS50 anti-personnel mine. The excavation tool is use was a Garden Trowel. The excavation tool was being used in a pushing motion rather than a scraping motion.
Ddasaccident358, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident358, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The deminer was conducting manual clearance utilising full excavation drills. At 09:15 he was excavating the front right comer of his lane he initiated what is believed to be a V550.
Ddasaccident310, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident310, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was a Section Leader who had been conducting his duties for three hours when, at 08:45 a deminer informed the victim “that there was a strange object in his excavation lane”. The Section Leader tried to excavate the object but had some difficulty “seeing it clearly because his visor was dirty and scratched. So he raised his visor halfway to see better, than grasped the object with the thumb and forefingers of his left hand and tried to pull and pry the object from the earth with the trowel”. The object detonated.
Ddasaccident309, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident309, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On the day of the accident the site-log recorded that work started at 06:30 and a change-over took place every 30 minutes thereafter. The accident occurred during a change-over period. While standing up from a kneeling position at 10:45, Victim No.1 lost his balance and fell forwards detonation a Type-72 antipersonnel blast mine [probably with his hand]. Victim No.1’s partner and Section Leader were standing too close to him at the time.
Ddasaccident356, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident356, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
One deminer injured severely by V-69 AP bounding fragmentation mine at 08:02 hrs at Chamy Trshakan minefield in Penjwen district.
Ddasaccident308, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident308, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was clearing away dirt from two detector readings. At about 10:05, during the transfer of spoil from the excavations to a bucket behind him, the victim dropped soil from the trowel. The soil landed in a non-cleared area and detonated a Type-72 anti-personnel blast mine.
Ddasaccident354, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident354, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The injured deminer was overzealous in the use of his hand prodding drills and procedures, because he might have thought that the VS-50 mine did not contain any detonators the same as the majority of other VS-50 mines found in this minefield. I conclude that the injured deminer was kneeling right over the mine when the mine exploded or he failed to wear his protective equipment, especially his helmet and visor, correctly as per Northern Iraq Standard Operating Procedures.
Ddasaccident307, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident307, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Because the area had been “verified”, and was therefore considered by all to be “safe”, the casualty walked straight out from the perimeter towards the indication box he was going to clear. Approximately 3.5 metres from his assigned work area he stepped on a V-69 bounding fragmentation mine.
Ddasaccident305, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident305, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The accident occurred in a minefield called Palkie that was laid in 1970s. The contamination was such that a metal detector could not be used in some places and a “clearance by excavation” method was used. In one place where a shell had dropped, the victim was excavating using a Russian bayonet when he initiated a mine.
Ddasaccident304, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident304, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The accident occurred when an EOD worker was making a final check over the cleared area. He then discovered a partly buried mortar (PD M-6) fuze. The fuze was already taken apart. The booster was removed and no safety pins (two) were in place. When the EOD worker handled the fuse the striker “sledged and initiated the detonator”.
Ddasaccident357, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident357, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The accident had taken place at 1245hrs; the injured deminer arrived at Emergency hospital in Sulymania at 1400hrs and was admitted. The prodder which he had been using was badly damaged and had taken on the shape of a half moon. This indicated that the point of the prodder had detonated the mine.
Ddasaccident360, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident360, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Whilst [the Victim] was clearing the pit area of unburned WP with a shovel, something in the shovel-load exploded on hitting the ground causing a small metal fragment to puncture his left thigh.
Ddasaccident359, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident359, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The operator had returned to Pit 1 and was in the process of checking the pit fully when the EOD specialist arrived. As he left the pit to meet him, one of the fuzes functioned. 2 fragments had entered through the side and rear of his boot.
Ddasaccident116, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident116, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The accident occurred at 11:15 in an area that was undulating and steep with dry earth and rock. The victim was investigating a detector reading with a prodder when the mine exploded. He suffered minor blast injuries to his chin and small fragment injuries to his right hand, his right thigh and knee joint. His helmet and visor took most of the blast. The victim was blown back and rolled several metres down a slope. He was evacuated, with two deminers of the same blood group, to the "Emergency" Hospital.
Ddasaccident006, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident006, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The team started work at 07:30 and at 09:30 it started to rain so they stopped work. The rain was light but it prevented the deminers from seeing through their visors until 10:55 when they started work again. At 11:10 the victim found a mine and was starting to mark it. He turned to his No.2 to request some pickets and as he did so he slipped and fell backwards onto the mine. The victim was holding his detector at the time. He was thrown into a mined area so a safe lane was cleared to reach him. He was …
Ddasaccident008, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident008, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 10:30 the victim was walking through the area to reach the rest area when he stood on a mine, thought to be a PMN buried to a depth of about 5cm. The victim suffered a below knee amputation to his left leg and minor injuries to both arms and legs.
Ddasaccident077, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident077, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
A deminer [the victim in a later accident on the same day] began clearance and located a PMN. He informed the Team Leader and then continued work and located another two PMNs. He then moved to the end of the clearance lane and found a further three PMNs. As he worked he marked the lane by taking markers from the right side and putting them on the left side. Each of the discovered mines was marked with a wooden picket.
Ddasaccident078, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident078, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The Team leader was preparing to destroy the discovered mines when he was injured in the first mine accident on the site that day [See accident No.227]. After the Supervisor had dealt with that accident he went looking for the deminer who had found the mines, intending to appoint him as the acting Team Leader.
Ddasaccident079, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident079, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The guide then mentioned another V-69 nearby and the two men inspected it. This mine had been tampered with or damaged but Victim No.1 decided that it was safe to move it to the new demolition site. Victim No.2 carried the fuze and detonators from the old site to the new one. Victim No.1 then asked Victim No.2 to lay the demolition cable. He was laying the cable and about 3m behind Victim No.1 when there was an explosion. He stated, "I can confidently say that the mines exploded while [Victim No.1] was busy laying the demolition charges".
Ddasaccident080, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident080, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was part of an advance team which was defining the perimeter of a suspected mined area, with the help of a local guide. The victim was putting in metal markers about 3m away from the existing mined-area boundary stakes. At 09:20 the victim stepped on a mine about 8m away from the existing boundary stakes. He suffered " a cracked bone and bruising to his left foot".
Ddasaccident361, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident361, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The Victim picked up a rock and moved back with it to put it to one side. He had withdrawn two meters when a dislodged rock rolled into the area he had cleared of rocks and detonated a Type-72a blast mine.
Ddasaccident081, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident081, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim prodded onto a mine at 07:55. There was a 45cm gap between the accident site and the "recognised face of clearance", indicating that the victim was prodding ahead of his end of lane marker. It was difficult to determine whether the victim had prodded the ground up to the site of the explosion