Bristol Airport was disrupted as a 1.5km exclusion zone was put into force on the ground and in the air after a walker came across World War Two explosives delaying flights to Spain’s Malaga airport
Two unexploded torpedoes appeared stuck in the mud on the UK coast – causing mayhem to the West Country airport that feeds Spain with daily flights as well as other parts of Europe.
The two torpedo explosives were found in the infamous mud on Weston Super Mares beach and were deemed that highly explosive in the event they exploded the blast could possibly take an aircraft out of the sky especially as they were below the flight path of many inbound and outbound flights into the airport.
An exclusion zone was set up whilst the bomb squad had to be called from Plymouth, which saw many flights delayed.
The seaside coastal walker spotted the torpedos on Saturday afternoon but due to the tides of Weston Super Mare, the bomb squad had to wait until Sunday before they could inspect and defuse the situation.
On inspection one of the torpedoes had corroded to just the tail end whereas the other was fully intact and buried in the mud.
Sunday saw a controlled explosion by the bomb squad to which revealed they were “test” torpedo’s from WW2.
A spokesman for Weston-super-Mare Coastguard Rescue Team said: “Once we were happy the area was clear and the water had receded enough, we assisted the Navy in the transport of their equipment and sandbags, close to the torpedoes location.”
The spokesman added: “The bang wasn’t as loud as expected due to it being a ‘test’ torpedo and was full of sand or concrete, not something anyone could have known.”
Stuck passenger, Brian Lewis returning to Spain’s Malaga airport told how his flight was delayed back to Spain:
“Well it was certainly interesting, it’s not often a bomb is the explanation for a flight delay, I took a hotel for the night and re-booked for Monday until all the drama was over, I went down to Weston to watch the controlled explosion, it was quite exciting, I haven’t been to Weston for years so made a day of it, it certainly made a change to my normal Sunday routine of the Costa del Sol” he laughed.
Share on your Social Networks