No, they actually come in a plastic tray and are individually separated by a plastic grid. Each tray is packed into a cardboard box that is a single layer... much like a box of ammunition in an egg-crate type cage.
Primers are relatively difficult to pop, especially by accident. I'm not saying it's impossible, but seems to me another source most likely caused it such as heat. Even if you slammed the back side of a tray of primers with a hammer, only the ones you crushed will go off, I can't imagine how it would have caused a chain reaction... they aren't blasting caps. You have to smack them in just the right spot or crush them. Myself and a buddy once did a week of detention at school for stomping on them in the parking lot with our boot heels (story for another time).
Who's to say if they were in the original packaging, I don't know. Story doesn't really add up though. Maybe only a few of them actually detonated and the press is smokin it up as usual...
“Maybe only a few of them actually detonated and the press is smokin it up as usual... “
I think they gang-fired, the reports say that the bag was pierced and a ramp rat’s shoe was peppered with primers.
They can gang-fire, that’s why they are sold the way they are.
This jeenyus took them out of the box and trays and had them all bunched up. The gang-fire lit a shirt on fire (at least it was smoldering), so if this had happened in flight it may have been a “concern”.
On another thread some of us were joking about how hard it is to set primers off but more knowledgeable people pointed out that they can flake off primer material, which can collect in a pile and be more sensitive. Static can set them off, too.