EOD strikes back
The Bomb Squad's close co-operation with Customs
& Excise continues to foil illegal arms dealers...
Demolition men. EOD team arriving at
Castle Peak with equipment to blow up 10
tonnes of highly volatile solid rocket fuel
illegally shipped through HK
ALL last week, at the remote Castle
Peak explosives range, members of the Force's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau (EOD)
methodically destroyed ten metric tonnes of ammonium perchlorate - the chemical name for
solid rocket fuel - by blowing it to smithereens.
"I call this experiencing the sound of freedom, because when you hear these blasts go
off, somebody on the planet (quite possibly a terrorist organisation) is deprived of the fuel
necessary to launch a missile with malicious intent," said the EOD's Senior Bomb Disposal
Officer Dominic Brittain between carefully controlled explosions. "The ammonium
perchlorate may have been intended to launch a legitimate satellite. But the circumstances
surrounding its seizure point to something much more sinister. I personally believe that in
this case we really are stopping the bad guys."
In April 1996, Hong Kong's Customs & Excise Department intercepted a vessel and
found 200 wooden cases containing the 10 metric tonnes of ammonium perchlorate on
board. The consignment, in 50-kilogram olive-green military containers, was not covered
by the required import and export licences and was therefore seized. The chemical, transiting
through Hong Kong, was stencilled as being bound for Pakistan.
Even so, no country, organisation nor individual ever came forward to challenge the
confiscation of the ammonium perchlorate which was valued at $6.8 million.
"According to Hong Kong legislation the import and export of this type of 'strategic
commodity' must be covered by licenses. If they are not, then their forfeiture is mandatory,"
said Deputy Head of the Customs & Excise Department's Trade Licensing Investigation
Bureau, C Y Yu, who was responsible for the investigation and the seizure.
Normally goods confiscated by the HKSAR are disposed of by the Government by
releasing them to relevant departments for training or consumption purposes if applicable,
or offered for sale by tender - or destroyed.
"In this particular case the ammonium perchlorate was put up for sale, but nobody
submitted a tender," said Mr Yu. "We therefore had to destroy it, so we sought the assistance
of the Hong Kong Police Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau. We are most grateful to
Senior Bomb Disposal Officer Dominic Brittain and his officers' work. Customs & Excise has
a very good working relationship with the EOD. As we also have with the Force's Ballistics
and Firearms Identification Bureau."
Indeed, of late Customs & Excise has been responsible for the important seizure and
confiscation of several strategic commodities imported without a licence through Hong Kong.
In all instances the expertise of EOD members was called upon to identify and conclusively
classify the goods as strategic commodities.
In May 1996, the Air Cargo Division of Customs & Excise found that a consignment
of five crates of unlicensed objects imported by air into Hong Kong and manifested as 'dummy
stores' was in fact identified by EOD members as assembly systems for two bombs and a
missile launcher.
Three months later, while conducting an investigation into a shipment of 710 wooden
crates manifested as "raw materials, finished products, spare parts and finished tools", Customs
& Excise again called upon the expertise of EOD. The cargo (which was not covered by
import/export licences and had been sent from North Korea to Hong Kong for transhipment
to Syria), was subsequently seized after a thorough examination by Mr Brittain who confirmed
that it contained component parts for 130mm M-46 Field Artillery.
A year later, in August 1997, the Ship Search and Sea Cargo Command of the Customs
& Excise Department, after seeking the assistance of the EOD's Bomb Disposal Officer Tony
Chow, seized an armoured vehicle, and munitions (valued at $5.7 million) being imported for
transit through Hong Kong from Thailand without a strategic commodity license.
Said C Y Yu: "Before we can prosecute those involved for unlicensed shipment of
strategic commodities we have to prove they are 'strategic commodities'. But in many cases
without the specialist advice from EOD officers we would never be able to identify the goods.
What may look like pieces of scrap metal can in fact be essential parts of military weaponry.
So Dominic and his men have assisted us a great deal - just as they did in destroying the
enormous quantity of ammonium perchlorate. EOD also assists in our training courses and
seminars."
Said Mr Brittain: "It's always a pleasure working with professionals, and when you're
working with C Y Yu - you're definitely working with a professional."
And while many of us were working in the comfort of air conditioned offices last week,
members of the EOD were out in a relentless 34-degree sun, placing 50-kilogram metal
containers of solid rocket fuel into four blast pits dug out of the Castle Peak explosives range -
a scorching, pock-marked crucible.
But no one was complaining.
Instead the operation's team (consisting of four of EOD's core eight-member unit, four
EOD cadre members seconded from their regular formations, and four PTU officers) seemed
determined to get on with the job. And as usual with EOD, it was a zero-tolerance of professional
error, methodical affair.
There were to be five rounds of explosions (each called a "serial"), with four containers
destroyed by a separate blast each round. That's 20 explosions, and one tonne of ammonium
perchlorate destroyed each day.
Because the explosions are remote-controlled, there's no radio contact allowed in the
blast area. So a PTU officer stationed high atop a hill was in contact with another PTU officer
in the range control office manning a telephone linked to the Chek Lap Kok air traffic control
tower. In the event that an aircraft strayed into the zone, the hilltop PTU officer would relay
the message to the EOD team - and all blasting would cease. Another PTU officer prevented
any unauthorised vehicles from entering the area.
Meanwhile, as sand bags were being placed in the bottom of the blast holes to prevent
dangerous gases from accumulating, EOD members made booster charges out of sticks of
PE4 plastic explosive. Twenty were prepared.
The first four seized containers were then hauled down to the demolition site in
Landrover and each carefully rolled into one of the pits. A small cavity was then dug into
the centres of the powdery ammonium perchlorate and the PE4 placed inside. Before the
detonators (which are activated by remote-control) were attached to the explosive cords
leading into the PE4, their circuits were checked by the Senior Bomb Disposal Officer. Every
procedure is carried out in steps which are then double checked before proceeding to the next
stage of the process.
"We are extremely harsh if a mistake gets made on a safety point. Every single person
has to get it absolutely right because we rely on one another to stay alive," says Mr Brittain.
Since EOD's formation in 1971 there have been no deaths - and no serious injuries.
Which is testament to the Bureau's intolerance of professional error, training, methodical
approach and use of state-of-the-art technology and equipment to reduce risk.
EOD's workload averages about 150 jobs a year. In fact, while the destruction of the
ammonium perchlorate was going on, Bomb Disposal Officer Tony Chow was called out to
deal with a WWII bomb unearthed at a construction site. A helicopter was tasked to move
him and his No.2, Sergeant Wong Kwok-fai, from the range and work was suspended by the
SBDO on the demolition ground until the aircraft was clear.
"Standby! Firing!" Boom!
The first batch of ammonium perchlorate went up in a twelve-storey plume of yellow
smoke and a deafening blast that sent shock waves through the team's bodies, despite being
hundreds of metres away and sheltered by a concrete wall. But before anybody had a chance
to admire the explosion the Senior Bomb Disposal Officer yelled: "Okay, load up the next serial."
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