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The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has been censured over safety failings that could have caused an explosion at Robin Hood airport in Finningley, South Yorkshire.

Ten people were present and other aircraft nearby when UKBA staff unsafely examined a plane's munitions cargo - despite being warned not to by the pilot.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today (19 December 2012) completed its Crown Censure procedure of UKBA following its investigation into the incident on 10 November 2009.

A flight carrying anti-tank ammunition had landed at the airport and UKBA workers were told by their manager to carry out checks on the load. The plane was taken to a separate part of the site because of the hazardous cargo.

The aircraft pilot warned UKBA staff that the crates of ammunition were explosive and should not be examined. Despite this warning, they opened the crates and partially removed some of the explosive devices from their protective packaging while ten people were there.

This entailed removing three separate layers of packaging, including opening the protective tubing and exposing live rounds of anti-tank ammunition. There were five crates, each containing five rounds.

The HSE investigation found that UKBA had failed to carry out a suitable risk assessment to enable them to complete the checks safely. Had they done so, they would have recognised several problems.

There was a significant risk that the ammunition could detonate if it was dropped which could have detonated the whole cargo. As a result, members of the public, airport workers and nearby aircraft were all put at risk on that day.

Mr Paul Darling, Corporate Director, Resources and Organisational Development, of the UK Borders Agency attended the Crown Censure meeting on 19 December 2012 at the HSE premises in Sheffield and accepted the findings on behalf of UKBA.

By accepting the censure, UKBA has formally acknowledged there were health and safety failings.

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Filboid Studge posted:

I would expect charges will happen.

We have a much stronger secrecy culture in the UK- it may be that there is a court injunction to prevent any more reportage of the case, and a super-injunction to prevent reportage of that injunction or itself.

The Guardian posted:

McNeilly has not been heard from since he handed himself in to the police at Edinburgh airport on 18 May, the day after his story broke. While absent without leave, he had posted a dossier online alleging 30 flaws on the submarines that carry Britain’s nuclear warheads and warning that Trident was “a disaster waiting to happen”.

The navy described his dossier as “subjective and unsubstantiated” and launched an inquiry that concluded by dismissing his allegations as “factually incorrect or the result of misunderstanding or partial understanding”. But now he has hit back, fiercely defending the accuracy of what he said.

All but three of the safety flaws he highlighted were “either witnessed or read in documented reports on the patrol,” he says. The remaining three “were accurate reports of what was described to me by experienced submariners.”

“Other submariners have been anonymously releasing information to journalists. It’s only a matter of time before worse information comes out, and everything is proven to be true,” he adds.

“All of the charges against me were dropped; there’s nothing that I can be charged with now. Most people know that I acted in the interest of national security. However, I was still given a dishonourable discharge from the Royal Navy.”

He was discharged “on the claim that my sole aim was to discredit their public image”, he says. “The truth is I view the Royal Navy as the greatest navy in history.”

Washington Post posted:

The Syrian government has freed an American freelance photographer who was abducted after traveling to the country in 2012, according to two U.S. officials.

Kevin Patrick Dawes, 33, from San Diego, was released following many months of negotiations, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details of Dawes’s release have not yet been made public.

Dawes has been allowed to call his family and receive care packages, a signal to officials that the Syrian government was moving toward releasing him, officials said. The U.S. State Department had taken the lead on winning Dawes’s release.

Officials said the Czech Republic, which represents American interests in Syria, played a role in talks with the Syrians. The United States closed its embassy in Damascus in 2012 as the war intensified.

Dawes’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dawes’s case drew little attention in the media but his release is believed to be a positive sign in securing the freedom of freelance journalist Austin Tice, another American hostage and former U.S. Marine who disappeared in Syria in 2012. Tice had been contributing articles to The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers and other news outlets.

The Syrian government has never acknowledged detaining Tice, but U.S. officials believe the government or a group affiliated with it is holding him.

“The [Dawes’s] private, painful ordeal is finally over. We are delighted for Kevin & his family,” said a statement from a Twitter account associated with the Tice family.

State Department spokesman John Kirby on Friday confirmed that an American had been released.

“While privacy considerations prevent us from commenting further, we continue to work through our Czech protecting power in Syria to get information on the welfare and whereabouts of Austin Tice and other U.S. citizens missing and detained in Syria,” Kirby said in a statement. “We appreciate the efforts of the Czech mission on behalf of U.S. persons.”

Dawes was taken after crossing into Syria from Turkey, according to the FBI. This wasn’t the first time he had gone to a conflict zone.

In June 2011, he traveled to Libya as a medical aid worker but then fought alongside forces battling Moammar Gaddafi’s government. He said the Libyan government had been targeting medical workers.

“It was at that point we decided we had no choice,” he told NPR in an interview in 2011 from Libya. “It was either this, or perish from here.”

Dawes told NPR that at one point in Libya he started carrying a rifle and began working as a “counter sniper. Actually, I watch windows and take out people cliquing at us.”

Dawes told NPR he was never in the U.S. military but had 10 years of experience as a trained marksman.

Dawes described in the interview his reasons for being in Libya. “See the world, experience new things, get in way over my head, but, you know, ultimately survive.”