British WW2 bomb kills 3 in Germany (2 June 2010).

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Some sad news, last nite (02/06/10) a British 500kg bomb exploded killing three experience German bomb disposal sappers, others were injured. Link below.
WW2 bomb kills three in Göttingen as experts attempt to defuse it | Mail Online
LUCKYSTRIKE

[Walkwolf]

Tragic.

The day has come. These acetone detonators are indeed too fragile to handle.

[klokhoane]

acetone has to be carefully handled if it's "fresh" even more if it's older.
Acentone will gain instability over the time to a point a little movement could set it of. The best way to get rid of these kinds of bombs is to use an other explosive as a primer to let it go "pop"

cheers,

[sitges1990]

Preventable deaths like this are a shame. Spend alittle money, bunker the the darn thing in dirt where it sits, and set it off. Is that right, that they recover 2000 tons of unexploded ordinance a year? Wow, is all I can say to that.

Jay

[klokhoane]

They knew it had a Acetone detonator and they had to know that acetone is very sensitive and can go "pop" very easily. I don't know where they found it (near a residential area etc.) but if it was outside a residential area i would do the same as you Sitges1990. Don't take more risks than needed.
Well, hope the other bomb disposal units will learn from this...

cheers,

[hassiman]

The problem is that there are millions of UXOs buried all over the place throught Europe... many UNDER homes and businesses. It's tough to tell someone that you will have to blow-in-place a 2000 HE bomb that will wipe out half a city block. The problem is that the things are now SO unstable that many will likely start detonating themselves. Don't be surprised to hear about city blocks dissapearing in a puff of smoke.

[shuggymac1]

That is a tragedy for the 3 german heroes,their colleagues who were seriously wounded , their friends and the families most important of all, unfortunately Bomber Harris's legacy lives on. They have my deepest sympathies. Unfortunately these brave experts have to follow the wishes of their politicians instead of using common sense like the earlier comments of blowing up bombs in situ regardless of collateral damage.
RIP +

[klokhoane]

aren't there any.. well.. kind of casings u could put over a kind of bomb like this and detonate it with little less damage to the surroundings?
A kind of wall that directs the blastwave to the sky and not in all directions? It's just an idea
It's a pitty that these 3 guys had to die... hope they aren't followed by others..

cheers,