One Killed, One injured, Military Ordnance explode, Scrap dealer dead in Balacita.

One dead, one injured in projectile explosion.

by Nine oClock Online Newspage at:

http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=de...d=20070513-6782

A man from the locality of Balacita (Mehedinti County) died on Thursday night and his daughter-in-law was injured by the explosion of a projectile they were trying to open to retrieve the aluminium it was made of.

The 52 year old man was collecting scrap iron from households to sell it to the recycling centres. On Thursday night, the man and his daughter-in-law were recovering the aluminium parts of several elements of ammunition they had collected from a Vardenita local, without knowing that they could explode at a stronger shock.

The woman hit a projectile with the hammer and it exploded. The man died after a few minutes and the woman was rushed to the Drobeta Turnu Severin County Hospital with hand lesions.


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Any idea of what type of projectile exploded??

And this should also be a warning to collectors of Military history that expended Military Ordnance can still be dangerous, and great care must be exercised when items are located.

Old ammunition from WW1 & WW2 is extremely unsafe, and was designed to kill or seriously injure people, and it still does.

Kevin in Deva.

The next day on the news I’ve seen the ammo they were trying to disassemble it was a AG-9 (SPG-9) projectile (so it was not from WWI or WWII) that they got from a artillery range still in use by the army.

Any ammunition is dangerous when you try opening it with a hammer and chisel.

Some more articles (only in romanian):
http://www.7plus.ro/?arhiva=12/05/2007&id=23176
http://www.protv.ro/stiri/social/doi-oamen...-proiectil.html

Hallo mihnea,

obviously having aluminum in the projectile indicates its of modern manufacture

Any pictures available of a: AG-9 (SPG-9) ??

However most items recovered in Romania are WW1 & WW2 vintage as can be seen when shown on the t.v. some people do not equate old rusty lumps of metal with danger, seems if it looks old its harmless, is the common mentality

Kevin in Deva.

This is the AG-9 recoiless gun:

http://www.mapn.ro/fotodb/20050916/foto_18_tragere_cu_AG_9
or
http://www.carfil.ro/html/________________...uncator_de.html

....and this is the PG-9 round used by it:

http://www.carfil.ro/html/lovitura_de_73_mm.html

Pretty awesome sight when close to it, but lethal for someone who doesn't know the risks involved by handling such items. Anyway, better to be safe then sorry...

Hallo Mannlicher,

The PG-9 round looks like a mortar bomb on steroids

Kevin in Deva

Aluminum started to be processed on a small industrial scale in the 1830's, in France. One of the first applications was to replace the bronze eagles from the flags of the army, during Napoleon the Third. The emperor wanted to make life easier for the soldiers carrying the flags.

By the start of World War One, aluminum was already produced for about 80 years.
However, you may be right. I do not know how often was aluminum used in WWI or WWII in shells and projectiles.
Aluminum was an expensive commodity - for Germany, for example, with important results. They did not have enough aluminum to build Diesel motors for tanks, like the Russians for T-34.
It was an expensive commodity for Soviet Union too - they built in 1941 and 1942 some fighter planes from pine wood, but I do not know what percentage was that from the total production.

This post has been edited by Florin on May 15, 2007 07:26 pm

Hallo Florin

Thanks for the information with regards the Aluminum, I have a Prussian commemorative medal in my collection, when it was made back in the late 1880's they were considered very valuable because it was exspensive to make the material with electricity. Now they have virtualy no value except a historical value.



Most Shells in WW1 & WW2 were made in steel / iron with the driving bands in bronze and fuses in bronze / brass, and cases in Brass.

I think it was post WW2 that Aluminum started to be used as bomb fins, steel cases were being made in steel or brass. Aluminium has not got the density to be used as a war-head I believe

In the case of the PG-9 round, it looks like a standard mortar round that has been adapted / modified for firing in the weapon.

Kevin in Deva

The PG-9 round has several shapes, only the rocket engine (the lower part) is the same. One of the shapes is the one from above - the mortar-looking bomb - and other is more romb-shaped, like the rounds used by the shoulder-firing recoilless gun AG-7.

The PG-7 round: http://www.carfil.ro/html/lovitura_de_60_mm.html

The PG-9 projectiles are similar to those used by the 73 mm 2A28 Grom main gun of the BMP-1 APC.

Can anybody identify the remains of this one, its completely deactivated.

Kevin in Deva.

looks like remains of a AG7 (RPG7) round.

Many thanks for the quick identification.

Whats the law say about having an item like this?

Kevin in Deva

As far as i know, in Romania is completely forbiden to have any type of ammo, without authorisation, even if it is not live anymore...

But i'm not 100% sure about this law...