Two killed in rifle range explosion

dmccarty · Oct 28, 2015

Rustyferrious said:
I'm an NRA certified Range Safety Officer. A tank? At a public rifle range? What on earth?

There is/was a public firing range, on the south side of Louisville, KY, that used to test naval guns that were made in the city. Kinda cool because there were railroad tracks that were used to hold the guns for test firing. They just brought in the cars and did the test firing. There is/was a huge concrete block house behind the railroad tracks to control the firing. The block house had steel plate on the front but some of the concrete and plate was pockmarked from explosions. :shocked:

The range was in a flat U shaped "valley," though valley is too big of a word for it, so there was a bit of protection from the shells. I think they were testing 6 and 8 inch naval guns.

I went looking the place on Google Earth but I can't find it. I was there back in the 70's and who knows what might have happened since then. I THINK I can find the farm I used to work on but I am not quite sure I have found the place. Some things look right but not others. :confused3:

The 70's seems like yesterday but it was *** 40 *** YEARS ago!!!!! :shocked:

:confused2:

Later,
Dan

2LaneCruzer · Oct 28, 2015

300UGUY said:
I read that they had a misfire, then possibly opened the breech to check it out, and the shell exploded inside the tank.

That seems to me to be an incredible mistake...It's possible that they were using WWII era ammunition, in that case a misfire should have come as no surprise. In any case, I can't imagine anyone with any experience with firearms opening the breech on a misfire for at least an hour or so, especially in a non combat situation...but who knows.

westcliffe01 · Oct 28, 2015

Pretty sure it was just a powder charge. That would be bad enough to kill people in a confined space. Similar to what happened on the destroyer USS Iowa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion

The USS Iowa turret explosion occurred in the Number Two 16-inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) on 19 April 1989. The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. Two major investigations were undertaken into the cause of the explosion, one by the U.S. Navy and then one by the General Accounting Office (GAO) and Sandia National Laboratories. The investigations produced conflicting conclusions.

The first investigation into the explosion, conducted by the U.S. Navy, concluded that one of the gun turret crew members, Clayton Hartwig, who died in the explosion, had deliberately caused it. During the investigation, numerous leaks to the media, later attributed to U.S. Navy officers and investigators, implied that Hartwig and another sailor, Kendall Truitt, had engaged in a homosexual relationship and that Hartwig had caused the explosion after their relationship had soured. In its report, however, the U.S. Navy concluded that the evidence did not show that Hartwig was homosexual but that he was suicidal and had caused the explosion with either an electronic or chemical detonator.

The victims' families, the media, and members of the U.S. Congress were sharply critical of the U.S. Navy's findings. The U.S. Senate and U.S. House Armed Services Committees both held hearings to inquire into the Navy's investigation and later released reports disputing the U.S. Navy's conclusions. The Senate committee asked the GAO to review the U.S. Navy's investigation. To assist the GAO, Sandia National Laboratories provided a team of scientists to review the Navy's technical investigation.

During its review, Sandia determined that a significant overram of the powder bags into the gun had occurred as it was being loaded and that the overram could have caused the explosion. A subsequent test by the Navy of the overram scenario confirmed that an overram could have caused an explosion in the gun breech. Sandia's technicians also found that the physical evidence did not support the U.S. Navy's theory that an electronic or chemical detonator had been used to initiate the explosion.

In response to the new findings, the U.S. Navy, with Sandia's assistance, reopened the investigation. In August 1991, Sandia and the GAO completed their reports, concluding that the explosion was likely caused by an accidental overram of powder bags into the breech of the 16-inch gun. The U.S. Navy, however, disagreed with Sandia's opinion and concluded that the cause of the explosion could not be determined. The U.S. Navy expressed regret (but not an apology) to Hartwig's family and closed its investigation.