The military is transported in zinc coffins to preserve the body of a killed soldier - zinc plating prevents air from entering the coffin, which helps the body to survive.
Zinc coffin
Coffins made of zinc or special galvanized boxes are used when it is necessary to transport the body over long distances, or when the body, for a number of reasons, must be without burial for a long time. Naturally, such coffins or their versions made of galvanized boxes are used primarily during wars and military conflicts, when the bodies of the dead must be delivered to their homeland for burial.
In general, zinc is chosen here for two reasons: the first is its high tightness with a fairly low weight and cost. The second reason is that its oxides prevent infection and the decay process.
Corpses in sealed zinc coffins are usually well preserved and do not cause inconveniences during transportation, such as an unpleasant smell of decomposition. The use of a zinc coffin in the above cases is mandatory according to the sanitary standards of all civilized countries. A zinc coffin can be used many times, because it was created not for burial, but for transporting corpses, and only if the body is severely mutilated, it is usually not opened and the funeral is performed in a closed coffin.
Cargo-200
Cargo-200 is a stable expression denoting a body in a zinc coffin. The expression came into our use since the Afghan war. Then the military needed a short and accurate description of the dispatch of the zinc coffin with the body, and the description was not entirely clear to an outsider. Zinc coffins are always weighed before being sent home by air, and their length-height-width is also measured to determine the so-called "flight weight" in order to calculate the permissible flight weight for the cargo compartment of the aircraft. On average, this flight weight was two hundred kilograms per coffin. This is where the military term came from: "two hundredth", cargo-200.
There are known cases when, during the Vietnam and Afghan wars, generals used cargo-200 to transport heroin - sealed coffins with drugs flew home, bypassing customs.
Transporting cargo-200 is actually a very complicated procedure. First, a coffin or a galvanized box must be soldered in a special place.
According to sanitary standards, it is forbidden to put even fresh flowers in a coffin! At the airport, the coffin must be shone through and registered through the cargo terminal.
At the same time, in addition to a heap of other papers, a mandatory "certificate of opaik" must be attached, indicating that there are no unnecessary items in the coffin.
