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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.
Ddasaccident175, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident175, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The demining team were clearing land so that an NGO could build a road. There was a deserted house at the site. The area was densely vegetated and strewn with a large number of fragments. Victim No.1 was a detector man. His partner cleared some vegetation and then returned to the rest area. Victim No.1 tested the detector a second time and went to sweep the area.
Ddasaccident030, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident030, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
A director of the demining company was interviewed about this accident on 15th December 1998. From memory he reported that the victim had been clearing a mine-belt at a village. The victim was a deminer and had just investigated a detector reading and found a fragment when the accident occurred. Without rechecking the area with his detector, he advanced and stepped on a Gyata-64. His foot was blown off but he had no other significant injuries.
Ddasaccident063, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident063, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Meanwhile deminers from another team approached and joined the two who had moved closer to the sticks lying by the missed mine. As Victim No.1 bent to pick up the sticks he stepped on the mine with his left foot. His body was low down and immediately over the mine. As he had been resting, he was not wearing any protective equipment. He suffered traumatic amputation of his left foot, amputation of "several" fingers of his right hand, a broken jaw, his lower lip was torn away, both eyes were severely damaged (resulting in blindness) and the "frontal area of …
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.
Ddasaccident177, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident177, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The Medical report recorded the time of the accident as 18:00, which is long after work stops for the day. From this it is inferred that the victim stepped on a mine in an area believed safe. That area may or may not have been previously cleared.
Ddasaccident180, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident180, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The demining team uncovered three Type 72a mines and called the supervisor to deal with them. The victim was walking over a cleared area at 10:30 when he detonated another Type 72a mine. He received injuries described in the field as "light". He was taken to Mong Kol Borey hospital arriving at 11.20.
Ddasaccident031, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident031, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
A director of the demining group was interviewed about this accident on 15th December 1998. From memory he reported that the victim was the Team Leader and had just made a radio report. He was returning to the working area and for some unexplained reason took a short-cut across a corner, stepping into an uncleared area. He trod on a Gyata-64 and lost his lower leg.
Ddasaccident038, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident038, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Work began on 18th May 1995 and one side was cleared that day, with a POMZ-2 located and destroyed. On 19th May 1995 the section started clearing the other side. At about 10:00 a mine exploded in a cleared lane about two minutes after a deminer walked there. No injuries occurred. Work continued and a further three mines were found using detectors. On completion the victim went to destroy the mines.
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 …
Ddasaccident194, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident194, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The primary cause of this accident is listed as a "Inadequate equipment” because of the detector failure. The secondary cause is listed as “Field control inadequacy" because the victim trod on a mine that would have been found if appropriate field controls had been in place and if the detector inadequacy had been recognised in a timely manner.
Ddasaccident197, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident197, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The summary sheet recorded the device simply as an AP mine and recorded the injury as a lower leg amputation.
Ddasaccident199, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident199, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
They were working very slowly and had only cleared 15m2 by 14:00. He had checked the area ahead of the lane for tripwires, then cut the grass. The third deminer then went to rest and Victim No.2 checked the area with the detector and marked three places. Victim No.1 then went forward to prod the marked places. He prodded on one but could find nothing so called Victim No.2 forward to show him exactly where the detector had signalled. Victim No.2 did so and as he walked back he stepped on the mine at 14:05. Victim No.2's "left leg was …
Ddasaccident198, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident198, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim stood on a mine at approximately 13:10 and was "injured with left leg amputated". He was given first aid and evacuated by ambulance to Rattnak Hospital at 13:25. The victim was then evacuated by helicopter to Mongkul Borei Hospital "at 15:00".
Ddasaccident200, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident200, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The two victims were walking "through a cleared area to the rest area at the completion of their day's work. They followed a path which was used daily…. the evidence tends to suggest that the mine was laid after clearance by unknown persons". An attached document added that the area where the accident occurred (at 13:10) had been cleared "a month back".
Ddasaccident201, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident201, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On the day of the accident demining was stopped at 13:45 because of heavy rain. At 14:05 the victim's platoon walked back to the vehicles in single file. The victim was the last of a group of four people and he stepped on a mine.
Ddasaccident202, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident202, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The UN Supervisor instructed Victim No.1 to straighten the sticks marking where the mines had been destroyed because some had fallen over "due to rain". The victim took two steps and a mine exploded under his right foot. The victim "suffered severe leg injury resulting in amputation of right leg above the knee and splinters on his penis and testicles". The UN Supervisor was knocked over but "did not sustain any injuries".
Ddasaccident203, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident203, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The accident was mentioned on the demining group's own spreadsheet of incidents they had suffered in the country. However, the country office did not have a copy of their own internal accident report.
Ddasaccident368, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident368, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
[Victim No.2] started the clearance and was alone inside the tank at first. As it entered the area it set off a tank mine and the roller system was thrown backwards with far more force than anticipated, hitting the tank. The detonation made the driver’s view ports of armoured glass muddy, so [Victim No.2] called a deminer to clean it. The tank progressed and initiated another three AT mines.
Ddasaccident204, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident204, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
Victim No,1 was working with Victim No.2 to his right when he saw a bush with a pile of PMN-2 mines beneath it. He crouched to peer under the bush, suspecting the cache might be booby trapped. Having seen no sign of a trap he stepped back and initiated a buried PMN-2 with his right heel. Victim No.2 was "less than ten metres away". He received fragment injuries to his arm and fragments of molten plastic in his leg which cut his tendons.
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.
Ddasaccident284, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident284, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
At the anti-tank mine where the accident occurred, one anti-personnel mine was visible, one had detonated, but the mine at 12 o’clock was missing. The victim approached the anti-tank mine from behind, sweeping with his detector. As he advanced, he stepped on the Type 72 anti-personnel mine. He was using a Schiebel AN-19 detector.
Ddasaccident279, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident279, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The “informal SOP” at the time allowed operators not to drive the machine out of the mined area at changeover times. In this case, the victim tried to change from one track to the other as his replacement operator and his Team Leader approached. As he changed tracks, he stood on the ground between the tracks and trod on a VS50 AP mine. The VS50 is over-pressure protected (a sustained pressure is needed) and so “resistant” to detonation by flails.
Ddasaccident074, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident074, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
On the day of the accident the victim was inspecting one of four demining teams when it started to rain. He was aware that their explosives store was not properly covered, so he looked around for something suitable to serve as a tarpaulin. He saw some material and picked it up, turning as he did so. His foot detonated an unidentified anti-personnel mine that was partially under his left foot. He was not wearing any protective clothing. The photograph below shows him reproducing the position he was in at the time.
Ddasaccident072, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident072, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The minefield consisted of a pattern of Ploughshare fragmentation mines surrounded by three anti-personnel mines. The victim was a sapper, tasked with locating and replacing mines that had been detonated by animals etc. He was using a prodder (approximately 50cm long) to find safe places to stand. His colleagues were about 10m behind him. Having prodded in one particular area, he placed his foot there and stepped on a mine. The victim believed that rainwater had caused the mine to move from its place in the pattern, and that he missed it whilst prodding. No detectors were available at that …
Ddasaccident073, Hd-Aid
Ddasaccident073, Hd-Aid
Global CWD Repository
The victim worked as a medic attached to the Engineer Corps. At the scene of the accident there was a store of mines and ordnance for defence of the Zimbabwe border. Enemy troops had taken some of the mines and laid them on the Zimbabwean side. A soldier stepped on a mine and the victim went to the site and treated the casualty. As he and three others were lifting the casualty onto a stretcher, a second mine exploded. The victim believed the mine was beneath the casualty. He was not able to identify the mine as other than an …