On 1 June, an unexploded World War Two aerial bomb was unearthed during excavations around apron 3. Thankfully the device was able to be safely disabled without any danger to staff or passengers.
Jan Lambrechts, Head of Fire & Emergency Services at Brussels Airport Company explains what happened, after experiencing events at close quarters:
“Just before lunchtime on 1 June, I was contacted by Deputy Manager Filip Daenen. Whilst performing excavations at apron 3, the contractor had hit on an aerial bomb.
The airport’s fire brigade immediately called in the Emergency Rescue Area Flemish Brabant West, under whose authority matters like these reside. DOVO, the Belgian explosive ordnance disposal unit, was notified and the various scenarios were discussed.
Crisis cell called into actionSame as applies in the case of major crisis situations, all relevant parties immediately gathered at the APOC (Airport Operations Center). The fire brigade deployed its Cp-Ops (Operations Command Post) and seconded 2 duty managers to the APOC.
DOVO subsequently put a safety wall of straw-filled containers in place around the piece of ordnance, with an earth wall around the rear as an extra buffer, thereby reducing the safety perimeter from 1,800 to 250 metres.
The BAC (Satellite), KPMG (Passport) and Deloitte (Gateway) buildings were evacuated as a precaution. Runway 01R/25L was briefly closed, although this did not have any major impact on the air traffic.
The two aircraft that were still in situ on apron 3 were towed to a different location as a preventive measure. During the actual defusing, the southern half of Pier B was briefly closed to members of the public and aircraft.
All clear!
After the fuse had been removed, it was job done.
The entire event was professionally handled in a safe and secure manner, without any impact on passengers or staff.
Just to give you some idea: 5 grams of TNT will blow up a car. Quite literally. This bomb weighed in at 250 kilograms, containing 120 kilos of TNT.
The impact upon explosion would have been huge.”
