Risk Management Magazine

As a young Soldier, I was not someone you would naturally point to as the next accident waiting to happen. I did what I was supposed to do and stayed out of trouble. I wasn’t a rebel. I also think I used common sense, even as a teenager, so I wasn’t prone to spontaneity and recklessness. This mindset suited me well as a young motorcyclist. I planned ahead, wore the proper clothing and protective equipment and preferred cruising over racing.

The radios were silent, systems were in the green and the Atlantic Ocean was rolling calmly along the empty white-sand beaches below. “Bird, 11 o’clock,” the left seater said matter-of-factly. “Contact,” responded the right seat, followed by smooth cyclic inputs that guided the aircraft effortlessly toward the one o’clock position.

When an explosion causes a sudden release of heat, light and sound, the energy causes the air around the point of the explosion to expand outward faster than the speed of sound. The blasts produced by these explosives throw shrapnel, extreme heat and piercing sound at their targets. However, perhaps the most dangerous — yet least understood — effect of an explosion is blast overpressure (BOP).