Tough week for Colombian DC-3s...
Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:55 am
From ANN:
Explosion Splits DC-3 In Two At Medellin Airport Grenade Blast Injures Eight People
A vintage DC-3 used by Colombian police to search for drug
traffickers was split in half by an explosion Wednesday on the ramp
at the Medellin Airport, but officials say it was an accident.
The Latin American Herald-Tribune reports a tear gas grenade
exploded inside the aircraft as crews were readying the plane tp
ferry 27 officers with the Mobile Anti-riot Squadron to the western
Choco province. At least eight persons near the plane were injured as the blast rended the aircraft
just aft of the wing.
"According to the first medical evaluations, four of the
injured, who were taken to the Medellin Policlinica and the Clinica
de las Americas in that city, had serious injuries, while the other
four only showed symptoms of being dazed," said General Dagoberto
Rodriguez, commander of the Medellin police.
The blast briefly shut down operations at the Medellin terminal.
The country's anti-drug inspector and director were dispatched to
the airport to conduct an investigation.
The incident occurred hours after five Colombian air force
officers were killed when their "ghost plane" -- another
retrofitted DC-3 -- crashed on a training flight in the central
Caldas province.
The DC-3s -- most of them turboprop-converted, former
military-spec C-47s -- are used for undercover operations and
reconnaissance missions against drug traffickers and rebels.
Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:15 am
How does a tear gas grenade blow an aircraft in half? Did it start a fire?
Was the destructive explosion a secondary explosion? There has to be more to the story.
Was the destructive explosion a secondary explosion? There has to be more to the story.
Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:34 pm
What I have read it was not a teargass grenade but a handgrenade 
Fri Feb 20, 2009 2:03 pm
I bet Gary's on his way down there now with a trailer! 
Chunks
Chunks
Fri Feb 20, 2009 2:12 pm
Planebeach wrote:What I have read it was not a teargass grenade but a handgrenade
Should make a good spares ship for the rest of the fleet. Wings, gear, cockpit, tail,...
Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:21 pm
Chunks wrote:I bet Gary's on his way down there now with a trailer!
Chunks
Now thats funny!
WOW!!! Its amazing that no one died!
Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:00 am
Yeah that what make a great hot dog stand at the petting zoo.... 
Lynn
Lynn
Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:12 am
Thats a lot of damage even for a hand grenade. Got to be more to that story. Probably a 89 year old grandmother in a wheelchair with a shoe bomb.
Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:49 am
Planebeach wrote:What I have read it was not a teargass grenade but a handgrenade
I think what they meant was after the smoke cleared, they saw that is was a hand grenade....
Lynn
Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:54 am
Still say no single hand grenade can do that much damage,
Wayne the pyrotechnical wizard.
Wayne the pyrotechnical wizard.
Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:47 pm
Ah, they don't have Canadian Geese down there do they???
Lynn
Lynn
Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:05 pm
Perhaps the hand grenade that went off was sitting on or in a box of other explosives. Quite a sad sight to see, it looks like this Dakota was definately well looked after before this point, even if it did have wierd modern engines.
Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:12 pm
a basler turbo prop retro fit
Sun Feb 22, 2009 2:18 am
Obergrafeter wrote:Still say no single hand grenade can do that much damage,
Wayne the pyrotechnical wizard.
It sort of depends on where it was, and what kind it was. I've seen a single flash bang peel a mini van like an orange. It looks like a bunch of the roof was blown up and back over forward of the explosion. Maybe it took out enough of the structure to allow the plane to break in half at that point? Is there a door at taht spot where it would be weakened? And of course, it could also be some wind damage. That big old flap peeled back forward of teh split could have been flipped up by a good gust...
It seems weird. You know there has gotta be more to the story. Why the hell did they have teargas on the flight? I don't see a any fire or smoke damage, nor is there any shrapnel damage I can see. A hand grenade leaves a buttpot of holes in thin material like that> Makes a tent look like a collander.
Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:23 pm
Lynn Allen wrote:Ah, they don't have Canadian Geese down there do they???
Lynn
No all the ones down there were handed over to the CIA and put into Guantanamo.