The pyrotechnician failed to secure the ammunition that exploded and killed his colleague. The court did not punish him – News

The court referred the case to the defendant’s superior for resolution as a possible misdemeanor for violating military regulations. “The act is not a crime,” said judge Ivo Hruška. In addition, the court did not determine what ammunition the defendant was carrying and whether it contained explosives.

But the prosecution claimed otherwise. “In his capacity as chief pyrotechnician, he had the 85 mm live ammunition found transferred to a temporary dump of unexploded ammunition, which was located near the soldiers. There, the victim tried to disassemble it and an explosion occurred,” the indictment states.

Duda, who has served in the army for 17 years, denies any wrongdoing before the court. They claim that it was not live ammunition, but a 100 mm artillery shell without explosive.

“I recognized it by the red cross on the lighter. That’s why I also had it transferred to the landfill,” said the defendant. When asked how he explained the explosion, he said that the soldier was apparently disassembling another missile.

“He did not inform me about its discovery and tried to dismantle it on his own. He must have missed that it was live ammunition and was trying to dial the fuse. He probably did it because the missile was in good condition and he wanted to take it to his private collection,” continued Duda, who was about three meters away from his colleague at the time of the explosion.

“I noticed he was kneeling over something. I wanted to see what he was doing there, and at that moment there was an explosion. It threw me off, then I crawled another five meters on all fours, lay on my back and started to check what happened to me. Subsequently, an ambulance took me to the hospital,” Duda described the dramatic moments.

At the time, members of the 15th Engineer Regiment from Bechyn were conducting an in-depth pyrotechnic survey at the former Kolvín impact area in Brdy.

“Both suffered serious injuries. One of them was airlifted to the Lochotín University Hospital with devastating injuries to his lower limbs. The second man suffered burns to the upper part of his body and was taken to the hospital by an ambulance,’ said Mária Svobodová, spokeswoman for the rescue service, on the day of the explosion.

A few days later, the army announced on Twitter that Warrant Officer Vlastimil K. had succumbed to his injuries.

The former military area of ​​Brda has been a protected landscape area since 2016, the army cleaned it from 2012 to 2017. Engineers found about 10,000 pieces of unexploded ammunition on an area of ​​nearly 13,000 hectares.

In 2019, the work started again, the pyrotechnicians started an in-depth survey in the places of the former impact areas, which are still inaccessible to the public.