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Full-Text Articles in Defense and Security Studies
Ddasaccident103, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident103, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators determined that the victim was clearing a breaching lane bordered by barbed wire. When the wire got in the way too much, he stopped work to pull it aside. In pulling it aside he stepped outside the cleared area and trod on the mine. The mine was believed to be a PMN (from "found fragments") but there was concern expressed that the mine was "an MS3 (anti-lift device)" at the time. The victim's visor was damaged.
Ddasaccident104, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident104, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators determined that the victim returned to his breaching lane after the short break and accidentally walked beyond the area he had cleared before the break, where he stepped on a mine. He may have not marked the end of his work properly. The device was identified as a PMN (from "found fragments").
Ddasaccident105, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident105, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim had been a deminer for seven years. It was five months since his last revision course and 35 days since his last leave. The demining group reported that the victim was digging with a pick when suddenly a PMN mine exploded.
Ddasaccident170, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident170, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was the vegetation cutter and prodder man. He cleared 50cm of vegetation at the end of the lane and then handed over to his partner, the detector man. The detector signalled so a marker was put down and the detector man returned to the umbrella. The prodder man investigated the source of the signal and then shouted that he had found a mine. He started to excavate around the mine in preparation for placing a TNT charge next to it. There were a lot of roots around the mine but the victim was not aware that there were …
Ddasaccident108, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident108, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim was injured when a farmer drove a tractor into an uncleared area close to where he was working. The deminer went to warn the tractor driver when the tractor ran over a PMN (identified from "found fragments") and the deminer suffered small facial and left eye injuries.
Ddasaccident109, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident109, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators determined that the victim was walking in an area that had been cleared three days previously by his own party as he made his way from the minefield at the end of the working day. He trod on a PMN mine that had been missed [presumably identified by inference]. A photograph showed a visor, which had been held in the victim's hand and had shattered. The remnants of the victim's boot were also shown.
Ddasaccident110, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident110, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators determined that the victim had found bullets before and so impatiently used his pick vertically to investigate directly onto a detector reading. He was squatting when it occurred and had his visor raised. The deminer's pick was destroyed and his visor slightly damaged. They claim to have identified the mine as a PMN from "found fragments".
Ddasaccident112, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident112, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators determined that the victim was pulling a wire obstacle out of the way when he accidentally stepped into an uncleared area and trod on a PMN [presumably identified by inference].
Ddasaccident113, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident113, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators determined that the room being worked in had been cleared by the back-hoe but it had not gone deep enough to uncover the mine. Victim No.1 was using the detector and got a signal but he thought it was a fragment because the back-hoe had cleared the area, so he investigated it by using the pick directly onto the reading. The mine was identified as a PMN [presumably by inference]. The victim's pick was “destroyed” and his visor damaged.
Ddasaccident114, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident114, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The investigators determined that the victim was squatting to prod with a bayonet and applied too much pressure. He used the presence of bamboo to explain why he squatted to prod. The mine was identified as a PMN from "found fragments". His visor was shattered in the accident and his bayonet was "lost".
Ddasaccident066, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident066, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Prior to the accident a two-man team including Victim No.3 were clearing a one metre wide lane. They were wearing frag-jackets, helmets and visors. The Team supervisor (a Uruguayan National) was not wearing protective clothing. He became Victim No.1. Another ex-pat supervisor (Pakistani National) on site was wearing a helmet and visor. He became Victim No.2. The deminers could see a partly exposed PMN about two metres in front of the end-of-lane marker stick.
Ddasaccident178, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident178, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At approximately 09:00 the victim detonated a PMN while investigating a detector signal with his prodder. He sustained a traumatic amputation of his left thumb and forefinger, grazing to his left upper arm and to the lower half of his face, and "a slight laceration to the cornea of his left eye" that caused 50% blindness in this eye. He was also bleeding from both ears. The victim was wearing body armour and a visor.
Ddasaccident033, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident033, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The demining platoon had "cleared 5,1602 metres and eight mines at Homoine before the accident". The mines were laid in a narrow belt but not in a pattern. The mines found before were PMN, PMN-2, PMD6 and POMZ2M. The victim was in a crouching position with his arm outstretched (holding a trowel) when he initiated a PMN with his right foot. He was not using his detector (which was 12 metres away). He was taken to hospital at 09:35 and arrived at 10:05. A blood shortage meant that other deminers had to donate three litres of blood.
Ddasaccident036, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident036, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 09:25 the victim was clearing a lane using a combination of detector and excavation (with a "digging trowel"). While in a kneeling position he reached out to dig at the edge of the lane and initiated a PMN. He suffered traumatic amputation of his right arm "at the elbow" and lacerations to his face, right leg, and left arm. He walked to a safe lane where paramedics gave first aid. He was then driven to Sabie and taken by air to Maputo Central Hospital, leaving at 10:17 and arriving at 11:02.
Ddasaccident039, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident039, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At 09:15 Victim No.1 was injured by stepping on a mine "in a recently cleared area while engaged in clearance duties….". Victim No.2 was also injured. "Both men were wearing protective clothing – cotton overalls, leather boots and protective eye glasses" [sic]. The men were treated on site and evacuated at 11:24 by air to Maputo airport. (The requested plane landed in the wrong place and lost radio contact: a second plane had to be sent.)
Ddasaccident040, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident040, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On the day of the accident the demining group's ex-pat country Manager went in to investigate the accident of the previous day (7th March 1995) and confirmed that the mine involved had been a PMN. He found parts of the device that he thought indicated that there had been two mines, but those parts were lost during subsequent events. When he went into the area a second time he spent ten minutes examining the area, then called out for people to gather together for a briefing. Immediately thereafter he was seriously injured by an explosion [no reason why he went …
Ddasaccident003, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident003, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At approximately 11:20 the victim discovered a mine. This was his third that day and the first day that he had found any at that site. Instead of informing his Section Leader as he was required to do, he investigated it on his own. "For some reason the mine (or perhaps mines) detonated leaving him very seriously injured". [See Medical report.]The victim was casevaced by helicopter to Quelimane hospital arriving one hour after the accident occurred. He died at 16:30 that day. The death certificate gave "haemorrhage" as the cause of death. The helicopter was deemed fortuitous, and some suggestions …
Ddasaccident041, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident041, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The Deputy Country Director was interviewed by the researcher on 18th November 1998 and later send a one page summary of the accident and two others (dated 01/11/95). He said that the victim had initiated a PMN mine at approximately 12:45 whilst prodding with his three-pronged fork. At the time an internal investigation [not made available] concluded that he had not used his detector in that area prior to the accident, which was against instructions from his supervisors. “If he had been using the detector the accident would probably have been avoided.”
Ddasaccident292, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident292, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
To save time, breach lanes were reduced in width to 50cms. A Ghurkha deminer, walking in the ‘reduced width” lane activated a PMN (either a Chinese Type 58 copy of the PMN or an Iraqi copy). It seems that the TNT in the mine had cracked up causing a partial detonation.
Ddasaccident289, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident289, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The driver of a recovery truck was sent to recover broken-down plant equipment in a minefield. Lack of supervision and appropriate instructions meant he walked into a known mined area to check the vehicle. He stood on an anti-personnel blast mine; either a PMN, Type 58 Chinese copy, or Iraqi PMN copy (black), or a Type 72 AP and suffered a lower leg amputation.
Ddasaccident277, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident277, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
In order to gain access to the PMN mines the victim had to climb over a pile of VS 1.6 (scatterable anti-tank mines). When he jumped down from the tank mines, he landed on three PMNs. This was inferred because three craters were found afterwards. It is thought extremely unlikely that PMNs would sympathetically detonate, so the victim’s colleagues thought it most likely that he landed with some of his weight on all three.