Saraburi Students Terrified As Training Tank Fires At Their School

[webfact]

Saraburi students terrified as training tank fires at their school

Saraburi - Over 30 students ran for cover when a training tank accidentally fired into their school compound Friday.

The students were having lunch at the canteen of Wat Thung Salika School at 11:30 am when they heard an explosion so they ran for cover.

It was late found that the explosion caused by a shell fired from a tank for training from the training ground of a cavalry unit from the other side of the mountain.

Captain Prakorb Imjai, who is in charge of the training, said the shell was not dangerous because it had no shrapnel and made only explosion sound.

-- The Nation 2009/12/4

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[Scott]

Unless it was made of a big plastic bag, it is dangerous. Imagine getting hit on the head by one.

[PhilHarries]

Unfortunately to make explosion sound requires the shell to contain explosive to generate a shock wave. Someone standing nearby would feel the effects of that shock wave. They could suffer anything from temporary deafness to physical injury, the shell may not contain shrapnel but gravel makes a very painful alternative.

In any other country this would be considered a very serious matter never mind if the shell was a training blank, or smoke shell or anything. For a projectile to land in a school yard from a military training ground is a severe lapse of discipline.

Also what is a "live" fire test ground doing anywhere near a school?

[BusyBee123]

Unfortunately to make explosion sound requires the shell to contain explosive to generate a shock wave. Someone standing nearby would feel the effects of that shock wave. They could suffer anything from temporary deafness to physical injury, the shell may not contain shrapnel but gravel makes a very painful alternative.

In any other country this would be considered a very serious matter never mind if the shell was a training blank, or smoke shell or anything. For a projectile to land in a school yard from a military training ground is a severe lapse of discipline.

Also what is a "live" fire test ground doing anywhere near a school?

tanks can fire up to 20+ kilometres away

[PhilHarries]

tanks can fire up to 20+ kilometres away

Correct but usually they used a reduced power charge to limit the range in such circumstances.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

That'll teach the kids to do their homework!!

Mac

[Meridian007]

Come on! Nobody was hurt, therefore nobody could've gotten hurt. You think too much!

[Pomthai]

The complete and utter lack of surprise on my wifes face when I showed her and she read this says everything.

[davejonesbkk]

"Captain Prakorb Imjai, who is in charge of the training, said the shell was not dangerous because it had no shrapnel and made only explosion sound."

awesome. I reckon if I'd been the reporter there when he gave that quote I would have been on the floor howling with laughter.

[Bagwan]

Unfortunately to make explosion sound requires the shell to contain explosive to generate a shock wave. Someone standing nearby would feel the effects of that shock wave. They could suffer anything from temporary deafness to physical injury, the shell may not contain shrapnel but gravel makes a very painful alternative.

In any other country this would be considered a very serious matter never mind if the shell was a training blank, or smoke shell or anything. For a projectile to land in a school yard from a military training ground is a severe lapse of discipline.

Also what is a "live" fire test ground doing anywhere near a school?

tanks can fire up to 20+ kilometres away

I have great difficulty in accepting that Thailand possesses tanks or the special ammunition required for that capability. The latest equipment as used in the US Army gives a circle of probability of 35metres at a range of 8000 metres. That Thailand in recent times was angling to purchase second hand tanks from Switzerland (of all places) makes me extra sceptical.

[animatic]

Unfortunately to make explosion sound requires the shell to contain explosive to generate a shock wave. Someone standing nearby would feel the effects of that shock wave. They could suffer anything from temporary deafness to physical injury, the shell may not contain shrapnel but gravel makes a very painful alternative.

In any other country this would be considered a very serious matter never mind if the shell was a training blank, or smoke shell or anything. For a projectile to land in a school yard from a military training ground is a severe lapse of discipline.

Also what is a "live" fire test ground doing anywhere near a school?

Ditto.

Just another Thailand mai bpen rai, didn't kill anyone incident.

Yeah right.... sheer idiocy of a high order.

Of course I agree with Bagwan, that 20k distance mentioned seems quite wrong.

Edited December 5, 2009 by animatic

[Sabre]

The complete and utter lack of surprise on my wifes face when I showed her and she read this says everything.

This reminds me of police academy somehow. You can just see it, some new recruits are playing a mischievous prank and load in twice as much charge ... the uppity second-in-command gets egg on his face, and thus his plans to usurp the doddering yet loveable commandant are thwarted.

So a tank round landed in a school? No harm done, we'll try not to do it again next week when we give the recruits their first HE rounds....

[mca]

"Captain Prakorb Imjai, who is in charge of the training, said "We're just practicing shooting innocent unarmed students exercising their right to lawful assembly. You never know when it might come in handy"

[EnhancePlus]

"Captain Prakorb Imjai, who is in charge of the training, said "We're just practicing shooting innocent unarmed students exercising their right to lawful assembly. You never know when it might come in handy"

[bangon04]

"Captain Prakorb Imjai, who is in charge of the training, said "We're just practicing shooting innocent unarmed students exercising their right to lawful assembly. You never know when it might come in handy"

and the Cambodian army must be quaking in their boots.....

[Hazri]

Poor kids. They must be terrified at the thought that their school is actually within firing range.

[garyh]

The Captain said it was safe so the the Thai way will be to believe him as he is of higher status.

[somluck]

I had the chance to conduct military live firing exercises in Thailand years ago (tanks/motars/arty howitzers). Many a times the designated live firing areas were very close to villages or even right next to them. There were also a few instances of mis-firing that caused some damage to buildings (was told no injuries). Once we were in a remote village up in Kanchanaburi and a monk pulled me aside to show me the damage to his temple entrance that were apparently caused by our M2 machine guns!

[321niti123]

Shouldn't have been that dangerous, it was on the other side of the mountain.

The sound should have been expected, and the kids should have been warned, but the other side of the mountain kinda implies the distance.

[brahmburgers]

The shell is not dangerous because.... Fill in the blanks. (blank shell, ....get it?)

I didn't know there were captains in the Thai military. I thought all were either grunt troops or generals. Even so, would captain Prakorb allow his kids to play with such a non-dangerous shell?

BTW, explosions have to be triggered by something, even if it's just a sound. Or perhaps it's just the sound of one hand clapping.

Perhaps when the captain gets promoted, and joins the ranks of the thousands of Thai generals, he will get assigned to head security at one of Thailand's four nuclear power plants.

I can predict what he might say when there's a radiation leak, something like, "it's not dangerous because you can't see it, and I still see people walking in the streets and cows grazing in the fields."

[mouse]

The shell is not dangerous because.... Fill in the blanks. (blank shell, ....get it?)

I didn't know there were captains in the Thai military. I thought all were either grunt troops or generals. Even so, would captain Prakorb allow his kids to play with such a non-dangerous shell?

BTW, explosions have to be triggered by something, even if it's just a sound. Or perhaps it's just the sound of one hand clapping.

Perhaps when the captain gets promoted, and joins the ranks of the thousands of Thai generals, he will get assigned to head security at one of Thailand's four nuclear power plants.

I can predict what he might say when there's a radiation leak, something like, "it's not dangerous because you can't see it, and I still see people walking in the streets and cows grazing in the fields."

Yikes are they not speaking about a Nuclear plant in this country or did I miss something and it already happened!

[TPI]

Unfortunately to make explosion sound requires the shell to contain explosive to generate a shock wave. Someone standing nearby would feel the effects of that shock wave. They could suffer anything from temporary deafness to physical injury, the shell may not contain shrapnel but gravel makes a very painful alternative.

In any other country this would be considered a very serious matter never mind if the shell was a training blank, or smoke shell or anything. For a projectile to land in a school yard from a military training ground is a severe lapse of discipline.

Also what is a "live" fire test ground doing anywhere near a school?

tanks can fire up to 20+ kilometres away

nonsense!...take a look at the maximum range of the new chieften II or the new abrams II...3-4 km max?

[hansnl]

That Thailand in recent times was angling to purchase second hand tanks from Switzerland (of all places) makes me extra sceptical.

Due to the arms reductions in Europe lots of very good tanks from war storages, most never used. are available.

Yes, also in Switzerland.

As long as there are accidents possible, they are bound to happen.

Murphy's law!

And maybe it was a loud bang, maybe the children were frightened.

But be happy nothing else happened.

Anywhere in the western world the press and the politicians would make it a long term division from their normal grabbing and deluding exercises.

Edited December 6, 2009 by hansnl

[PhilHarries]

Yikes are they not speaking about a Nuclear plant in this country or did I miss something and it already happened!

Mouse, I see from your stats that you ain't a newcomer so am a little amazed at your response but will reply civilly.

Yes, Thailand is considering a nuclear power plant.

Beyond that I will keep schtum.

[tso310]

What exactly was the tank supposed to be aiming at. Must have missed the target by several kilometres.

[Tanaka]

Shouldn't have been that dangerous, it was on the other side of the mountain.

The sound should have been expected, and the kids should have been warned, but the other side of the mountain kinda implies the distance.

The mountain, if you will call it that, is not exactly high. And furthermore, if you read the OP, the shell was fired from the other side of the "mountain". But it did not land there!

[Bagwan]

On an occasion now written in the sands of time, we were exercising our bombardment skills on the naval gunnery range in Hong Kong. This involved the use of a spotter,usually a 'brown type' i.e. an Army officer, viewing from a safe distance. The Navigating Officer knowing our position and that of the target would calculate the range and distance of the target as at a predetermined time and this would be set on the fire control system in the transmitting station in the bowels of the ship. The course and speed of the ship are fed in automatically. One of the guns would open fire and the spotting officer would report on the fall of shot. Since his angle of sight differs from that of the firing ship, further corrective calculations are made and applied. When the desired result is achieved the fire control system is set to lock on target and full salvoes are then fired. As always, and certainly expected, we demolished the target in short order. Since two hours of the time on the range that had been allocated for our use remained, it was decided that we carry out a night bombardment. Now this is where it gets complicated and a whole lot of fun.

The procedure stated above is implemented but one of the guns is allocated to be the star shell gun. This has to be aimed at a point some 200 yards further on along the line of sight to the target of the spotter. Thus this gun is pointing in a slightly different direction than the others. Not only that but the elevation of the gun will differ and the timing of the nose fuse calculated so that the shell explodes about 200 yards or so beyond, and 500 feet above, the target along the line of sight of the spotter, and a phosphorus flare slowly descends by parachute. All this was my job, making the appropriate settings on the 'fruit machine' and firing the guns when the pretty lights indicated that they were loaded and ready. As you might surmise I was kept pretty busy at this and other corrections such as checking wind direction and speed variation. Unfortunately I made a simple error which was unnoticed by the Control Officer standing behind me. Although the correct fuse number to be applied was calculated, I didn't make the switch that sent that information to the fuse setting machine on the star shell gun. Thus the star shell was sent on its way rejoicing with an unset fuse and would keep going until it ran out of puff.

Unfortunately refugees from mainland China had, unknown to Naval authorities or the HK Government, trespassed onto the firing range and set up their shacks and tents since there was apparently nowhere else to go. It was a big problem for the Government that squatters absolutely refused to move off the patches of unoccupied ground in the Colony so that they could erect proper accommodation for them. In this case I had unwittingly helped them out. One can imagine the <deleted> is happening when the first star shell arrived amongst them and the sheer terror as they decamped at high speed when the second came. A third arrived before the spotting officer called a halt to proceedings. This gave a whole new meaning to the term 'scorched earth policy'. I expected a charge of negligence to be levelled but deflected it to the Control Officer in the transmitting station whose job was to monitor all actions of the fire control crew.

The affair was hushed up, the Government well content with the outcome since shortly afterwards the range was handed over the the civil powers for development, and the RN did not wish to be publicly embarrassed. I was however the butt of many jokes, some of them quite funny.

[blakegeee]

Hahaa, I just told my wife the story and the Army's response. She shrugged her shoulders and actually said "This is Thailand". LOL

[Asa]

Come on! Nobody was hurt, therefore nobody could've gotten hurt. You think too much!

The one who was in charge should have been discharged!

If it hit my backyard once, it is possible a live shells could hit again. Correcton should be done yesterday. Do something now, or tomorrow will be too late.

[aussiejosh]

LOL its not dangerous because it only explodes? I thought explosions were dangerous.... LOS love it.