Eek! This could have turned out interesting....

Air Force official fired after 6 nukes fly over U.S. B-52 bomber, accidentally armed with warheads, went over several states.

Associated Press - AP - Updated: 11:43 a.m. PT Sept 5, 2007

WASHINGTON - A B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown for more than three hours across several states last week, prompting an Air Force investigation and the firing of one commander, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called the mishandling of the weapons “deeply disturbing” and said the committee would press the military for details. Rep. Edward J. Markey, a senior member of the Homeland Security committee, said it was “absolutely inexcusable.”

“Nothing like this has ever been reported before and we have been assured for decades that it was impossible,” said Markey, D-Mass., co-chair of the House task force on nonproliferation.

The plane was carrying Advanced Cruise Missiles from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a Defense Department policy not to confirm information on nuclear weapons.

The missiles, which are being decommissioned, were mounted onto pylons on the bomber’s wings and it is unclear why the warheads had not been removed beforehand. Earlier, the Associated Press erroneously reported the bomber was armed with only five warheads.

Investigation to take weeks
The Air Combat Command has ordered a command-wide stand down on Sept. 14 to review procedures, officials said. They said there was minimal risk to crews and the public because of safety features designed into the munitions.

In addition to the munitions squadron commander who was relieved of his duties, crews involved with the mistaken load — including ground crew workers — have been temporarily decertified for handling munitions, one official said.

The investigation is expected to take several weeks.

The incident was first reported by Military Times newspaper group.

“There is no more serious issue than the security and proper handling of nuclear weapons,” Skelton said in a statement Wednesday. “The American people, our friends, and our potential adversaries must be confident that the highest standards are in place when it comes to our nuclear arsenal.”

Skelton, D-Mo., said his committee will pursue answers on the classified matter “to ensure that the Air Force and the Department of Defense address this particular incident and strengthen controls more generally.”

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p299/gthompson97/AP_BOMBERWARHEADS.jpg

The terms B52 and mistakingly nuclear equipped is an oxymoron.

My good friend told me about this morning, how the hell does something like get public? And how the hell did nukes "mistakingly" get misplaced. You can tell a nuke from a regular bomb, especially fuckin cruise missiles! Fishy....

Crazy. Stay away from here.

If they weren't suppose to fly them over there then how where the bombs going to get to the other base?

The bombs weren't supposed to go anywhere, just the plane was. That shit literally went almost right over my head.

There is no way stuff likes this accidentaly happens. I'm sure the guy who authorized this knew what was happening but, now that its public it was officially an "accident." I don't buy the whole "oh whoops we forgot to take the 6 huge fucking nuclear warheads off before we sent the guy out to go get lunch." I smell bullshit.

^ Exactly. I've seen some retired nukes and cruise missiles, those things don't "accidently" pop their way into B52s, which btw carry nothing but weapons. I heard Minot AFB is chuck full of nukes, so why they're flying a B52 from there is weird enough.

Anything less than firing and/or discharging everyone in authority who knew about it would be unacceptable. Not exactly a small mistake, this could have been huge.

Well they don't detonate unless they are armed, so the chance of them actually going off in a crash or something is like .01%...but it just goes to show how careless people can be.

The missles were supposed to be on the plane, they were going to Lousianna to be decomissioned... they were not, however, supposed to have the warheads attached. One of the biggest problems (from what I understand) is that this a breach of some treaty to not fly nuclear weapons around.

Also, my understanding of a nuclear weapon is by no means extensive, but there is 0% chance they would have gone off upon contact. They were not armed and arming them wouldnt exactly be easy. Being that they werent armed, physical trauma would be no different than hitting two rocks together and expecting a chain reaction to spawn from that. Honestly, where I see someone getting punished is perfectly acceptable, I do not see this as a terribly huge deal. IMO the treaty violation is the worst thing that happened here.

Very true, they're pretty much no threat unless armed. Its the same as if I dropped a 2000lb on a playground, it wouldn't detonate unless the arming solenoids are wired to arm when they're drop, otherwise it'd be like dropping a Mini Cooper and just watching it make a big thud.

My instructor was telling me somthing about that treaty. The Air Force has to let it be known how many functional B52s we have, there's even one on display at my last base that's considered 'functional'. The one that's trained on for armament had to have its tail fin cut off to insure it'd never fly again. I personally thought B52s flying anywhere was rare, IIRC, we only got like 7ish still able to fly, but the fact that it was mistakingly armed is way beyond weird to me.

How coincidental... I have a good friend at Minot Airforce Base... And he just went back last week after his 2 week leave... I think I may have to try to find out some more details... :wink:

Man they probably just got lazy and forgot to take the shit off. Or a nugget probably assumed they were disarmed and signed the plane off as good for flight.