African Nuke: BBC Man Witnesses 1991 Ethiopian Blast

[BlueMoon]

Colin Blane of the BBC reported from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: On the morning of May 29 1991, five of us had driven to report on a fire at an ammunition dump. As we tried to find cover to film from, there was an immense explosion, so huge that from two miles away one of my colleagues was killed, and another badly injured as debris rained down upon us for a full five minutes. It is hard to understand how any of us survived the blast.

The event Blane describes happened when he, a cameraman who lost an arm, and a sound man who was killed, went to Debre Zeit Road in Addis Ababa to check reports of civilian deaths. An ammunition dump had exploded after an EPRDF militiaman had fired an RPG into one of the ammunition bunkers the day before, killing civilians who were apparently engaged in looting.

When the TV news crew arrived they decided to proceed across country, and had just crossed into a dry creek bed, camera footage shows Blane walking ahead, almost hard against the steep high bank close to his right. Smoke was visible across the creek from the burning and still exploding ammo dump, then in the last instant recorded on tape, the earth trembled and the trees lay down flat. Just like they do in footage of nuclear bomb tests.

Blane was later to say he thought a nuclear device had exploded.

This device is likely connected to the broken arrows, two or three supposedly lost nukes jettisoned from a burning B52 off of the coast of the Horn of Africa in 1991. Said to be the remnants of South Africa’s nuclear program. The video does not appear to be available thru Google or Youtube. Seek it out, it is spectacular proof of atomic weaponry in the Ethiopian Arsenal as early as 1991.
[/i]

[slingshot]

There would have been fallout of course, levels are carefully monitored worldwide and any spikes are noted, and investigated. If these men were that close to the explosion of a nuclear device, then they would have suffered the effects of radiation poisoning. The pressure wave from a conventional ordinance explosion can travel at 20,000 fps., and do incredible damage, and I believe that this is what these men experienced.

[chicom]

The C-130 delivered big blu's dropped in Iraq in 1991 were also misconstrued as tactical devices by a SAS team on a deep penetration recon mission.

A whole bunch of stored munitions will do alot of damage.

Just look at Port Arthur in Texas during the 40's. A munition ship caught fire at the docks, exploded and leveled the town a couple of miles away.

[chicom]

http://trinixy.ru/2007/04/18/vzryv_22_mb.html

[karlsgunbunker]

I big enough conventional explosion will do the same damage as a Nuke.
A few Kilotons of HE makes a big boom.
A nuke would have set off earthquake monitors.

[Mikeal]

I big enough conventional explosion will do the same damage as a Nuke.
A few Kilotons of HE makes a big boom.
A nuke would have set off earthquake monitors.+1, I think the idea of a nuke is bull.

[dwmilton]

Chicom,

That thar was a baaaadaaasssssed clip !!!

Too cool.

D.

[Thomas Paine]

Anyone here ever see a Nuc Simulator set off? They can be built to any size and give a fireball, blast wave , and suction wave just as a nuc. Usually constructed of amfo with some accelorator charges. Will make you soil yourself if you ain't expecting it I have been told. At distance the only tell is the lack of a heat/thermal wave.

[Christian for Israel]

nukes can't 'cook off' from being burned. the most would happen is the explosive part would detonate, squirting the plutonium out one side. the only way to set one off is to use a properly working detonator.

[happyhunter42]

The explosion in Texas City in 1947 was caused by several hundred ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the hold of a cargo ship bound for Europe.