A surprize no one expected | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

A surprize no one expected

A surprize no one expected
Submitted by raycarpenter
Tags: 
pass the parcel

I have included this aircraft picture some where else but a story has evolved that should put it with the Marksman Unit group. I am not delving into the complicated politics as to why they did it but some people hi jacked the plane and it landed at Kai Tak. The Marksman Unit were detailed to deal with the matter pending outer cordons by the SDU. Bill Duncanson resolved the situation peacefully and was at the passenger ladder with other unit members taking the hi jackers off one by one. SDU wanted them quickly on a bus and away for questioning but Bill insisted on screening each hijacker for hidden guns and bombs as they emerged and used my partner Sidney as the interpreter. One suspicious hi jacker came down the staires with a bandage wrapped around his hand. SDU wanted him away quick but Bill stopped that and screened him. Using Sidney Bill questioned the hi jacker. The story; The hi jacker had a loaded gun and a hand grenade on him. He was frightened as they were about to land so he pulled the pin out. When he realised that he was not going to be shot he became excited at becoming a resident of HK and lost the pin. Throughout the negotiations his hand became tired, he still couldn't find the pin, he couldn't find anywhere to dump the live grenade so he wrapped a bandage around his hand to stop the thing going off hoping to dump it later on. Upon seeing this everyone quickly left the scene and that left Bill and Sid to sort it out. Bill sent out to Kai Tak for all the nails, pins, paper clips,- anything and escorted the grenade man to the runway edge overlooking the sea and waited with the man to find a suitable pin to stick back in the grenade hole to make it safe. This was eventually done and the grenade and man was safely taken away. It was through his leadership, attention to detail and looking after people that Bill made the Marksman Unit quite unique for its time. Hope you enjoy the stories of the little unknow jobs we did about the place. 

Gallery: 
1970s RHKP Marksman Unit
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Comments

Submitted by harryhktc on Fri, 2014-02-07 19:50.

 

".....escorted the grenade man to the runway edge overlooking the sea..."

Perhaps Bill could have simply thrown the grenade into the sea - followed by the hijacker  :)

H.

Submitted by raycarpenter on Sat, 2014-02-08 19:08.

The grenade was an american fragmentation grenade. 100% lethal within 25yards radius. 75%lethal within 35yd radius and so on etc. down the scale the further away you are. Imagine being hit with a piece of metal, travelling about 5/6 miles a second and an eighth of an inch square. It has a huge stored energy but not the mass to go through you, when it hits it releases all its pent up energy inside you, enough to totally disrupt all you internal organs or shatter bones. Horrible. But, With grenades there are several fuses you can screw into the top and each fuse has a different time delay. Colour coded. .Some are 4 second. 6 second. 8 second delay to allow time for the thrown grenade to go a safe distance before the bang. There is one fuse that you have to be wary of and that is the fuse instantaneous. You pull the pin, let go the safety lever and the grenade goes off in the hand. These are usually the ones favoured in these circumstances, because there is nothing else to lose. As the hi jacker didnt know what fuse he had nor did he want to go this far and wanted to live and as he was a prisoner of the RHK Police he was treated as such. --- Besides it only took a little time and thought before the incident was resolved without loss of life or damage and if the thing was dumped in the sea who knows what might have happened if the fuse instanteneous had been fitted. Grenade bits such as the more solid fuse housing can go over 200 yards or more. So consideration has to be given as to the aircraft location. The colour code is easy to scratch off so you dont know what you've got. So the resolved way was best. No airport damage, no injury or death but most of all no criticism from any authorities, airport or other police units and no bad press. Just good comments and a job well done for the RHKP. This comment is added to show to the reader the considerations that have to be given towards a situation like this and it also gives you an insight into the real complications of a hand grenade. Hope you enjoyed it.

Submitted by philk on Sat, 2014-02-08 19:18.

Please keep them coming, Ray.

Submitted by harryhktc on Sun, 2014-02-09 20:19.

Thanks, Ray - obviously more to a grenade than we knew. As Phil says - 'keep them coming' - fascinating to read your behind the scenes stories of RHKP.

H.