Posted on 11/01/2005 11:07:15 AM PST by Pragmatic_View
A truck carrying elderly missile components exploded in a tunnel on the highway to Daegu on Tuesday, causing a panic at the scene and a three-hour traffic jam.
The left rear tire of the 15-ton cargo truck caught fire while the vehicle, part of a convoy, was passing through the Dalseong Tunnel 2 on the Guma Highway toward Daegu shortly after 2 p.m. The fire spread to missile propellants stored in wooden boxes in the rack and caused an explosion. Another truck behind also caught fire. In the ensuing panic, more than 100 drivers following the trucks abandoned their cars and ran to safety.
The truck was one of four carrying missile parts to the 11th Fighter Air Division in Daegu from an Air Force unit in Boseong-gun, South Jeolla Province. The two trucks ahead of the exploding vehicle truck were already out of the tunnel at the time of accident.
The Nike-Hercules missile has along with the Hawk missile been at the center of Korea’s air defense. Developed in the 1950s by Western Electric, it was deployed to the U.S. Forces Korea in 1965 and handed over to the Korean military in the 1970s.
This is not the first time the missiles have been involved in accidents. A Nike-Hercules missile was accidentally fired in Incheon in December 1998 due to defects in the launch system circuit, injuring six people and damaging over 110 vehicles.
Some 200 Nike-Hercules missiles remain in Korea, the only country that still operates them. But Korea started phasing them out last year, and the Defense Ministry is pushing forward a next generation surface-to-air missile (SAM-X) project and buying used Patriot missiles from Germany with a budget of W1.1 trillion.
Smoke billows from a truck carrying Nike-Hercules missiles in a tunnel along a highway in Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province on Tuesday. /Provided by MBC
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Military officials inspect the site where a truck loaded with missile parts caught fire in a tunnel along a highway in Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province on Tuesday.
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Sure, a flat tire makes the missile explode on the truck. Tell me another one, Granma.
Other news sources are reporting this as well. Click here
I didn't see it posted.
Love that quaint phrasing... All your elderly missile components belong to us...
Missile truck explodes in South Korean tunnel
There have been a series of explosions in South Korea after a fire broke out on a military truck in a road tunnel.
Our correspondent, Shane McLeod, says a convoy of military trucks was travelling through the tunnel near Daegu when a fire started underneath one of the trucks.
That spread to missile parts on board, causing explosions, and the fire to spread to other cars in the tunnel.
Local fire officials say no-one has been injured, but up to 50 other vehicles have been trapped in the highway tunnel by fire and thick smoke.
Firefighters believe a leak in the brake lining of one of the trucks may have caused the fire.
Officials say the commercial cargo trucks were moving the missile parts, which belonged to the South Korean military, from a South Korean Air Force base to Taegu.
South Korean soldiers stand next to a burning truck carrying missile parts at a expressway tunnel near Daegu. [AFP]
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I wonder if they ruled out a bomb in the tunnel. This brake failure and tire catching fire story, coincidentally in the tunnel on one of these trucks just doesn't ring right. It's possible, but it's a bit too much of a coincidence.
Must be a good tunnel...........
Unless I missed something, no one died. That seems to be a minor miracle. I don't know how long the tunnel is but I'm surprised people didn't die of smoke inhalation. The official story does seem a little weird. It also seems to be a little bit unsafe to drive missiles with rocket fuel through the tunnel.
Isn't the nike herc nuclear capable?
Some interesting history: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/nike-hercules.htm
Specs: http://alpha.fdu.edu/~bender/N-data.html
There were Nike-Ajax and Nike-Hercules installations in the Chicago Lake front parks into the 60s.
Used to be.
I used to watch Hawk and Nike Herc launch from the same peninsula on Crete where we launched our Lance missiles. Nike Herc was a very scary lauch. Straight up, pause in mid-air, group prayer on ground, next stage ignition. Very scary.
I have to drive those tunnels during my monthly trips to Korea. Yep, in Daegu/Taegu. They're very well vented for situations just like this. Some years ago, a tunnel in Holland/Sweden/Switzerland (?) caught fire and 20-some people died from the smoke.
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