Seventy Confirmed Dead in Freighter Docking Accident
Weds, Jan 18, 2164
New Albion (INN) - At least seventy people were killed Tuesday after an
Alarishi freighter plowed through the Owens Docking Port and exploded into a
fiery mass while attempting to rendezvous with the Davis Hazardous Materials
Station over New Albion.
"The people in the dock never had a chance," said Dana Parr, a dock loader who
saw the tanker smash to the neighboring docking port.
Chief Alfred Lerchey of the NAC Transportation Authority, said the number of
dead could rise in the accident that occurred shortly before 3 p.m., creating
a cloud of smoke and debris that could be seen from the Tuffley Thrust
Starship Yards, several thousand kilometers away.
At least three other freighters were burned down to their frames during the
enormous, hour-long fire. Foam dispensed by firefighters covered all
avenues in and out of the docking port and layered a white coating over
mangled ships. The main hull of the station within 100 meters of the docking
port was also scorched.
Seventy people have been confirmed dead from the accident. Another
twenty-seven are missing.
Mitzi Zamora, the station's superintendent, said five ships were
involved -
three freighters and two docking tugs. The fire burned much of the soft metal
on the ships, but investigators hoped to get identification numbers from the
remaining frame structures.
"It's a mangled mess," she said.
All ports on the station are closed for the time being. Ships scheduled to use
this station are being directed to other facilities for the time being.
Most ports on the far side of the station should be able to re-open
within a day or two.
Officials were concerned about the structural integrity of the station. The
freighter all but took out the entire docking port from the station. Zamora
said engineers were testing the metal and other parts of its structure.
"We understand the impact this has on traffic," Zamora said. "This is the
major docking station for hazardous materials in the system... We're doing
everything we can to open the other docking ports."
The Alarishi government has been contacted about the accident.
Wendy Han, a station worker whose apartment has a view of the docking port,
was sleeping when she felt a 'crump.'
"I looked out the port and saw the first bit of fire and explosions for what
seemed like 15 minutes," Han said. "I watched the fire burn away much
of the docking port. It was a pretty amazing thing - I checked myself
several times to see if I was awake. I don't know how many people were in
there, but I can't imagine anyone surviving that inferno. It's very
sad."
The NAC Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team of investigators.
Nice writeup; always cool to see more GZGverse news items.
Minor quibble: How does a fire burn for over an hour in vacumn? Explosions,
sure, but smoke & flames in vacumn? (I read this as happening at an orbital
station; if you meant it to be a surface starport then ignore my objection...)
> The Alarishi government has been contacted about the accident.
MV Flower of Ibadan was registered to Ogbomosho Freight of Alarish, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Olusegun Ojukwu Priority Shipping of New Lagos, PAU. The
latest safety information on record, from five months ago, is that Forward
Power Port Control refused docking privileges due to an unstable thruster
control program, and the Flower's cargo had to be transfered by lighter.
(The local Alarishi consul officially did not say: If you beggars don't
perform a safety inspection on a ship *before* you allow it to try to dock at
a hazmat handling facility, then there's probably not much we can do to help
you.)
> Brian Burger wrote:
For starters, do you know how HARD it is to get anything space-related
even slightly incorrect in a media article written by this
non-journalist??
;-)
Mk
> Brian Burger wrote:
After all, naplam does plenty of fun things even when it's extenguished...
On a more realistic note you can always say that the ship's onboard air
reseves are being consumed by the fire~
> --- Sylvester <Xveers@hotmail.com> wrote:
The FCT has sent assistance on the BDN Graycap and has orderered all Aleriahi
registered ships to report for inspection that are in FCT space. (Informed
sources state that special operatives of the FCT are in route to discuss this
odd
accident.) Speculation is rife that pelletized
magnesium, sodium, liquid H2 and liquid O2 were being unloaded when the
thrusters went into an 'overburn' state and ruptured the transfer tubes.
Bye for now,
> On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 03:16:26PM -0800, Brian Burger wrote:
> Minor quibble: How does a fire burn for over an hour in vacumn?
Oh, ho ho! Evacuating air is _no_ way to stop a fire in space - the
burning stuff just sits there, very nearly as hot as it was, until you let the
air back in, at which point it happily goes "foosh".
That's assuming there's no combustible oxygen in the burning material
itself, of course - many plastics will happily keep smouldering in
vacuo.
If you have a fire in zero-G which is relying on atmospheric oxygen,
it'll tend to "burn out" quite quickly since it can't draw in oxygen by
convection. Until you turn on the circulation fans or start accelerating, of
course... because as before it's sitting there hot, waiting for more oxygen.
The space shuttles carry bottles of pressurised Freon-1301 (or at least
they did a few years ago, not sure whether they've now refitted with the CO2
system they were contemplating at the time, but probably not since
it's just too bulky) and Halon-1301 hand extinguishers. Extinction by
vacuum is _not_ a standard procedure.
> The FCT has sent assistance on the BDN Graycap
Good idea. Certainly most Alarishi habitats require inspections before FCT
ships (or NAC, or NSL, or anyone else) come to dock, or a recent certification
from an inspection company with a good reputation. For example, if you're
coming to load antimatter at Forward Power, you'd better have been inspected
within the last 30 days by Forward Power itself, or by Graf & von Thys..
otherwise you should be prepared to pay to have your cargo lightered over.
New Los Angeles has a list of thirty-seven acceptable inspection
companies and will accept six month certs and a much lower "pass" rating.
> accident.) Speculation is rife that pelletized
Good thing it wasn't antimatter.
> At 9:49 PM +0000 1/24/04, Roger Burton West wrote:
I can ask my uncle about the current extinguisher fit as he's a midbody
electrician and his wife is a forebody project manager.
As far as venting atmosphere to protect a ship, figure that on a much larger
warship, it'll be designed to so so just like warships are desgined to flood
down compartments and bunkers to deal with damage (or used to be).
> On Sun, Jan 25, 2004 at 01:16:38PM -0500, Ryan Gill wrote:
> As far as venting atmosphere to protect a ship,
Yes, but venting atmosphere is a really bad way of putting out a fire -
unless you have several hours to wait while it cools off.
On the other hand, I think it very likely that, if the vacuum suits are good
enough, it will be standard procedure to vent a ship before combat anyway,
thus minimising secondary damage from explosive decompression.
> On the other hand, I think it very likely that, if the vacuum suits
And from explosions, period.
DAMAGE CONTROL INSTRUCTOR EYE BALLS THE CLASSROOM FULL HALF AWAKE TRAINEES.
"QUESTIONS?"
ONE HAIRY HAND SHOOTS UP. IT IS ATTACHED TO THE NEANDERTHAL WEARING THE
CAMOUFLAGE BATTLEDRESS AT THE REAR OF THE CLASSROOM.
hokay, friends, being pretty muchof a plain trigger pulling, making shit dead
kinda joe, i have a few wonderful questions concerning fire in space.
a. assumption, military vessels would always enter combat (given the
chance) with vacc-suited crews and 0-atmos pheric pressure in
compartments to avoid
damaged from explosive decompression and internal explosions, period?
surely, with the energy and heat transference accompanying damage from hyper
velocity projectile weapons, as well as energy weapons, and exploding missile
warheads, there is a chance of warship and other
spacecraft personnel/materials being subjected to flashfires,
explosions, and sizzling hot fragments, etc?
and in a 0-gee or micro gee environment fire does really weird things (
i am told; flows like water, floats about in self consuming fireballs, etc?
that very hot materials puncturing and sizzling into a crew
member's vacc-suit might be more than just an explosive decompression
problem (as in flashfire INSIDE the vacc-suit), for coolant, hydraulic,
fuel, oxygen reserves, water reserves, and electrical components.
firefighting gases and foams to flood a burning compartment, while saving the
day, might also make for really serious stuff to deal with later?
as has ben pointed out, venting a comparment to extinguish the fire only
works as long as the white/red hot wotzit is not exposed to oxygen
again until it is cool?
also what about materials that FEED EACH OTHER, making a self sustaining fire
and explosions?
what about materials that when combined produce flash fires and prolonged
fires that burn with such intensity that they cause, say, water to break down
into into its different components when exposed to the heat?
would this also occur with other fire fighting tools?
and wot about those magazines inboard loaded with boom thingies and store
power?
air hazard? radiation hazard? bio hazard? 0 gee/ micro-gee conditions?
fluctuating lighting (strobe effect by accident)?
i think a really nice learning talk about fire, explosions, eletctrical arc,
and other nastiness would be a help to an admitted less than rocket scientist
like me
DAWGIE, who used to be locked, loaded and ready to make shit dead on demand...
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2004 at 04:40:10PM -0600, DAWGFACE47@webtv.net wrote:
> a. assumption, military vessels would always enter combat (given the
This is certainly a valid assumption - _if_ the vacc suits are good
enough that you don't lose massive amounts of dexterity while wearing
them. This is not true of current zero-atmosphere pressure suits;
personally I think it's a reasonable assumption for the fairly near future,
but not everyone agrees with me.
Also consider the practicalities of trying to give someone first aid in zero
pressure. Suddenly a small splinter causes a potentially fatal wound.
> and in a 0-gee or micro gee environment fire does really weird things (
Yup. All sorts of weird stuff.
> firefighting gases and foams to flood a burning compartment, while
Best bet is to pick a non-corrosive agent, especially relevant when
you're dealing with electronics bays. CO2 is relatively good for this -
not ideal but not as bad as some of the others. And of course with current
tech weight matters a lot too.
> and wot about those magazines inboard loaded with boom thingies and
That's why the damage control teams are paid the big bucks. What,
they're not? :-)
> air hazard? radiation hazard? bio hazard? 0 gee/ micro-gee conditions?
"If it's bad, there's a good chance it'll happen." :-)
I think this may be too long for a mailing-list post, but I'll see about
writing it up as a web page...
I read something on the NASA site a long time ago about operations in
low-pressure environments. Not vacuum, but quite low.
With breathing systems, that would get rid of a lot of the potential danger
from fire and explosive decompression.
I'll see if I can find the link...
> This is certainly a valid assumption - _if_ the vacc suits are good
Can't find it, but here's a step in the right direction:
http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/releases/2003/03-009.html
"Although numerous safety measures are in place to prevent this, spacewalkers
face the risk of nitrogen bubble formation in their blood similar to the
threat of decompression sickness faced by scuba divers. Symptoms in more
serious cases include headaches, memory loss and blurred vision. The human
body normally is exposed to 14.7 pounds per square inch (1.034 kilograms per
square centimeter) of pressure at sea level. A spacesuit provides only 4.3
pounds per square inch (0.302 kilograms per square centimeter) to make
movement in the pressurized suit less difficult. Additionally, little is known
about how the lungs can be affected by
long-term exposure to microgravity - the near-weightlessness of space."
> I read something on the NASA site a long time ago about operations in
> I read something on the NASA site a long time ago about operations in
For what it's worth, I'd envisaged most of the non-essential and/or
outboard compartments being vented before battle, but atmosphere retained in
the more vital and occupied inner sections to allow easier and less tiring
crew operations; during actual combat, most crew are in light vacc suits to
protect against decompression of vital ship areas due to internal damage.
Damage Control parties, who regularly work in the depressurised and most
dangerous areas of the ship while enemy fire is still incoming, are in much
heavier vacc
suits virtually equivalent to Power Armour - but probably with
flexibility and manual dexterity taking priority over extreme armour
protection - they would have enough to protect against smaller flying
debris, heat etc., and against being thrown into bulkheads and stanchions when
the ship's combat antics temporarily overload the
G-compensators....
Note that none of this is supposed to be especially "accurate", just to have a
good feel for game background and fiction possibilities...
Since PSB is the issue, Pournelle's Imperial Earth stories and novels (Mote in
God's Eye and others) have crew in armored pressure suits at battlestations,
though I cannot remember if the ships were decompressed to vacuum or not.
Incidentally, the Imperial Earth stories work well with FT ships and rules. I
would think that possible danger of explosive decompression would be higher up
the list than an individual crew member's safety, and that a
pressure suit would be prized and cared-for personal equipment.
I like the armored suit idea though dumping air would be wasteful, you would
have to tank it up somewhere. They don't show crew in armor much in SF movies,
but I suspect that is primarily actor protest at the discomfort, and the cost
of making props. B5 is the worst offender, since the EA ships do not have
"structural integrity fields" ala Star Trek. And when they fight, the
shredding is usually phenomenal, making an armored suit a valuable item.
Armored suits have another advantage...they look REALLY cool in book art!
Robert
> From: Ground Zero Games <jon@gzg.com>
> have a good feel for game background and fiction possibilities...
This from memory so the details will be hazy and I can't remember any of the
names right now, but in the episode of B5 with michael york as the guy who
thought he was king Arthur, they showed him firing the Prometheus' (was that
the right ship) main battery causing the minbari war and I'm definate it
showed him wearing some sort of pressure suit. most of the shots inside EA
vessels appear to be areas that would be well inside the hull, and if those
bits are exposed to space then the ship is probaly well out of service.
Jim
[quoted original message omitted]
> Jim Morrison wrote:
"A Late Delivery from Avalon".
> they showed him firing the Prometheus' (was that
You are not wrong. They do indeed show this in the close-up of York.
> most of the shots inside EA
One way to explain it. :-)
Mk