Australian showoff was da bomb, before he got evacuated

[zwiebel]

When Damien Lumsden found a WW2 bomb with the pin still in it near his small town of Milingimbi in Australia's Northern Territory, he thought there'd be nothing better than to sling it in the back of his pickup and show it off to all his townsfolk. He sent a photo to his boss too.

'I wanted to keep it,' he said plaintively, after bomb disposal experts summoned by Damien's horrified boss evacuated him from his home. He had to stay out of it for weeks while they figured how to remove the live explosive.

When it was finally detonated outside the town, an area of nearly a mile had to be cleared.

*My note: Australia was bombed by Japan in WW2 but this was a Navigation Flame Float II which sounds like one of their own. Wonder how it got there?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...i-puts-ute-police-realise-s-LIVE-blow-up.html

 

[zwiebel]

A navigation flame float isn't a bomb at all. It's a (duh) navigation explosive. British, as far as I can make out.

Flame float: small incendiary device that would float after being thrown out down the flare chute. The rear gunner would center the "pip" on his reflector sight on the point of light and then read off the degree of deviation from a scale on his turret ring - this would provide the navigator with the degree of wind drift blowing the aircraft off track.

http://natureonline.com/37/56-ap4-glossary.html

 

[LadyL]

it took weeks for them to clear his house? they should probably get a better system in place in case it happens again :scared: