US bomber loaded with nuclear missile by mistake
An Air Force B-52 bomber flew across the central United States last week with six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads that were mistakenly attached to the airplane’s wing, defense officials said yesterday.The Stratofortress bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was transporting a dozen Advanced Cruise Missiles to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Aug. 30. But crews inadvertently loaded half of them with nuclear warheads attached.
(emphasis mine) Washington Post
Also read the story here.
Geosci blog has some reactions.
Having the worlds largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, the mistake is no doubt embarrassing for the nuclear messiah.
But, at least they made it public.
September 7, 2007 at 3:28 am
They made it public because the nuclear missiles were no danger to anyone even if they were launched
September 7, 2007 at 4:21 am
@Mihir
Even though this fact doesn’t become immediately apparent to common folk, don’t you think they could have still hushed up the entire thing? After all this is an embarrassing expose!
September 7, 2007 at 8:45 am
These things don’t need to be hushed up. Hushing up every “embarrassing” incident is best left to the likes of the Soviets and Chinese.
September 7, 2007 at 8:51 am
I’m glad that you finally got my point
September 8, 2007 at 8:48 am
Ach!