Has anyone survived triggering a bounding landmine?

score:5

Accepted answer

Yes.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/afghanistanyear1380/the-horror-of-landmines/

In northern Iraq, during the Persian Gulf War, for instance, we observed six casualties from the explosion of a Valmara-69. The two persons who were trying to defuse the mine to recover its aluminum content — worth about $1 on on the local market — were immediately killed. At the same time, four other people nearby, including two young shepherds, were severely injured. Only two of them survived.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-mine

Standing still or attempting to run from the S-mine would be equally dangerous. The most effective way to survive the mine's detonation would not be to flee but to fall to the ground lying face down as quickly as possible.

Upvote:3

One of my instructor once told me that he survived triggering a bounding mine. He triggered the first charge that propels the mine in the air, but then the mine hit his backpack and fall to the ground, so the wire attached to the ground which is supposed to trigger the second charge ( the one that kills people ) was not able to tense properly, so the mine did not explode.

Upvote:6

When triggered, a bounding mine propels itself into the air, then explodes, spraying shrapnel over a large area. To maximize the effectiveness, the shrapnel pattern is largely horizontal (shrapnel thrown upwards into the air or blown into the ground at the base of the mine is wasted).

This means that, in general, the best way to survive a bounding mine is to throw yourself flat on the ground, face down. If you're close enough, most of the shrapnel will pass over you.

The best-known bounding mines, the German S-Mine class, had a four-second time delay on the fuse. This gave a person or vehicle triggering the mine time to move away so they wouldn't prevent the mine from rising into the air, but it also gave them time to take evasive action if they realized they'd triggered it.

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