500-pound bomb put in scrap yard, killed employee

[left-of-center2012]

Sen. John McCain: Who put bomb in scrap yard?
McCain wants the Defense Department to explain how a bomb wound up in a Tucson scrap yard, where it exploded and killed an employee.

The ordnance was an MK-82 general purpose bomb, according to police, who said Thursday that detectives were still investigating how it ended up at the scrap yard.
McCain, R-Ariz., said he is “extremely concerned about the tragic death” of the scrap yard worker, who was killed as he tried to dismantle and dispose of the bomb.

Daniel Wright, 46, died in the explosion Wednesday at the Tucson Iron and Metal yard, which handles recycling materials, police said.

http://www.startribune.com/mccain-how-did-military-bomb-end-up-in-arizona-scrap-yard/329314231/

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. I'd guess it probably ended up there the same way a lot of other scrap does

there's an air force base near Tucson, and the Mk82 bomb has been in service for nearly 50 years, now; that one went missing in a live-fire exercise due to a bad fuse (or was lost when a plane crashed) is plausible, as is that it'd be dug up years later (Tucson has grown quite a bit in the interim), and equally plausible that some idiot would send it to a scrapyard (over here in the UK, unexploded German bombs are still being dug up; people who find them tend to know what they are and have the sense to call the police and let an expert disposal team deal with it).

[hunter]

2. Misplaced or stolen or fell without exploding...

... then somebody found it and sold it as scrap.

A long sad chain of clueless people.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_82_bomb