DU on crashed 747 BBC Report

["Frederic Dawson" <ydc90@dial.pipex.com>]

BBC reports Uranium on jet 'not a risk'

 Four crew died in the crash, Emergency services have insisted there was no
danger to the public from depleted uranium on a Korean Air Boeing 747 cargo
plane which crashed near Stansted Airport.

It has emerged that the plane, which came down shortly after leaving the
Essex airport, contained several hundred kilograms of depleted uranium.

It would need to have been exposed to a fire of 800C for more than four
hours before it emitted uranium oxide...if it was breathed in it would be
only 40% of the amount deemed harmful

Boeing spokesman
The revelation comes as an Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) report
into the crash highlighted defects in the flight captain's attitude director
indicator - which tells a crew whether their aircraft is level, climbing or
descending.

The report said instrument warning buzzers had sounded 14 times in the
seconds before the plane crashed into Hatfield Forest in December. The AAIB
says the problem with the equipment was known about and apparently rectified
before the plane left Stansted.

'No danger' The emergency services also played down the risk from the
depleted uranium.

Sergeant Deborah Duce from Essex police said: "The presence of depleted
uranium was known about at the time of the crash.

"The authorities said it did not pose a danger to the emergency services.
There is no danger to surrounding residents."

Depleted uranium (DU) is a heavy substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead, and
used in armour-piercing munitions. Many Gulf War veterans believe it is
implicated in a range of medical problems they are suffering from, known
collectively as Gulf War Syndrome.

DU has been used in aircraft to make counterweights in the tailplane.

A Boeing spokesman told BBC News Online: "The company began using DU in the
early 1960s. Boeing replaced it with tungsten in the early 1980s, on grounds
of cost and availability.

"The Korean 747 was delivered to the airline in June 1980. We think it
contained about 300 kg of DU.

"But it would need to have been exposed to a fire of 800 degrees Celsius for
more than four hours before it emitted uranium oxide. And even then, if it
was breathed in it would be only 40% of the amount deemed harmful."

Burning dust DU is known to vaporise into a spray of burning dust on
striking a hard object, and some studies suggest that it can form uranium
oxides at lower temperatures.  Over 150 kg of DU was lost in Amsterdam

A report in 1985 from the Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory said that
after only two hours' exposure to a fire of 700 degrees Celsius, 22% of a DU
munition appeared to have burnt off.

The Korean plane crashed in flames. Malcolm Hooper, professor emeritus of
medicinal chemistry at the University of Sunderland told BBC News Online:
"If no precautions were taken at the crash scene, people will have been
exposed to hazards that could prove fatal.

"Those who were handling the wreckage should have been advised of the risk.
I can't see any way you could have a significant fire in a crash like this
without producing the conditions that would allow a potentially hazardous
release of DU."

Dutch crash

On 4 October 1992 an El Al cargo 747 crashed into a block of flats in an
Amsterdam suburb. It had been carrying 282 kg of DU counterweights.

Only 130 kg were recovered in the clear-up after the crash, and the Dutch
commission of inquiry concluded that some of the rest had been released as
particles, which would have been inhaled by rescue workers and local people.

The plane was also carrying chemicals used to manufacture the nerve gas
sarin, which local people blamed for ensuing health problems.

More than 800 residents and rescue workers were reported after the crash to
be complaining of a range of problems, including fatigue, skin complaints,
joint and bone pains, kidney ailments and respiratory problems.

The commission of inquiry did not conclude that these problems had been
caused by the DU lost in the crash.

Fred Dawson
3 Barnsbury Close, New Malden
Surrey. KT3 5BP
England
44(181) 287 2176

Personal webb page : http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/drive/ydc90/
Work Email : modsafety@gtnet.gov.uk


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