Keen eyed folks may have noticed that no visibility or present weather
observations have been posted at Solent MRSC since 0600 GMT today:

http://www.meto.gov.uk/weather/europ...bs/solent.html

http://www.meto.gov.uk/education/archive/uk/

This is because the Coastguard Station at Lee-on-the-solent (where the
obs are taken) has been evacuated because of bomb disposal work - in
common with most properties within 750 metres of the HMS Daedalus
airfield (a fair chunk of Lee-on-the-Solent and some surrounding
areas). The roads are closed, too.

Bomb disposal engineers are currently excavating and attempting to
remove several large pipe bombs built under the airfield during World
War Two that were 'rediscovered' earlier this year. Work will continue
each Monday (and possibly on other days of the week) for the next few
weeks until the work is completed.

http://www.gosport.gov.uk/sections/y...-mines-removal

One of my daughters lives near one side of the airfield and another
lives near the opposite side... scary!!!

--
Dave
Fareham (West)

Dave Ludlow wrote:
Keen eyed folks may have noticed that no visibility or present weather
observations have been posted at Solent MRSC since 0600 GMT today:

http://www.meto.gov.uk/weather/europ...bs/solent.html

http://www.meto.gov.uk/education/archive/uk/

This is because the Coastguard Station at Lee-on-the-solent (where the
obs are taken) has been evacuated because of bomb disposal work - in
common with most properties within 750 metres of the HMS Daedalus
airfield (a fair chunk of Lee-on-the-Solent and some surrounding
areas). The roads are closed, too.

I believe it was common practice to lay mines beneath runways during
construction of WW2 airfields.

I have flown from one that allegedly had such devices beneath the
tarmac. I always landed very carefully:-)

I have been told that there is no real reason to worry !(?)

Jack

wrote in message
oups.com...

Dave Ludlow wrote:
Keen eyed folks may have noticed that no visibility or present weather
observations have been posted at Solent MRSC since 0600 GMT today:

http://www.meto.gov.uk/weather/europ...bs/solent.html

http://www.meto.gov.uk/education/archive/uk/

This is because the Coastguard Station at Lee-on-the-solent (where the
obs are taken) has been evacuated because of bomb disposal work - in
common with most properties within 750 metres of the HMS Daedalus
airfield (a fair chunk of Lee-on-the-Solent and some surrounding
areas). The roads are closed, too.

I believe it was common practice to lay mines beneath runways during
construction of WW2 airfields.


Rumour has it that there are WW2 explosives beneath the cross runways of a
busy airfield not far from here-clue top right hand corner of the
photograph on my home page. Rumour also has it that the USAAF buried an
awful lot of hardware such as Jeeps and B17 engines in pits on airfields
such as Ridgewell (now Essex Gliding Club) before they left. Not found them
yet but shell cases are still found most often on the approach line to the
runways where they were 'discharged' as the aircraft came in to land.

Regards
--
George in Epping, West Essex (107m asl)
www.eppingweather.co.uk
www.winter1947.co.uk

Interesting George, the airfield I was alluding to is also a gliding
site in East Anglia:-)

Jack

On 2 Oct 2006 10:43:45 -0700, wrote:

Interesting George, the airfield I was alluding to is also a gliding
site in East Anglia:-)

They just blew up one of the mines. Work overran into Tuesday as they
had problems so they decided to detonate. My daughter who lives near
the airfield phoned me to say the locals were all been warned about it
in house-to-house calls and it was scheduled for 3:30 BST. I am 5
miles away so I asked her to "prank" me on the phone as soon as she
heard it - which she did.

I made it into the garden within the 25 or so seconds I had to spare
and I heard the boom! She didn't really believe me until I told her it
was a *double* boom! No damage was done at her end.

Hopefully, they will let the Solent Coastguards back into their
station now - there has been (from Met Office website) total data loss
from there for lengthy periods over the last two days.

--
Dave
West Fareham