I recall the time they had mistakenly attached cruise missile nukes to the underside of a Piedmont Airlines DC-3 making its Raleigh to Durham run.
The Seattle Times
Thursday, September 6, 2007 - Page updated at 02:08 AM
Air Force fires commander in nuke error
By PAULINE JELINEK
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Air Force fired a commander after a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown for more than three hours across several states last week, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
It was originally reported that five nuclear warheads were transported, but officers who revealed the incident to the Military Times newspaper group, which first reported it, have since updated the number to six.
The mistake was so serious that President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were quickly informed, and Gates has asked for daily briefings on the Air Force investigation that was ordered, said Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell.
He said Gates was assured that “at no time was the public in danger.”
Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called the mishandling of the weapons “deeply disturbing.” Rep. Edward 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, which are to be decommissioned, 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.
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Images: (Mk50) upload.wikipedia.org via en.wikipedia.org;(B-52) z.about.com via inventors.anbout.com; (Songbird) Sky Kig via making.ripples.com