B-52 loaded with nuclear warheads flies from North Dakota to Louisiana

[Lobster Martini]

LM: Bloody hell, this is so Dr. Strangelove...what does the government have against Louisiana? Think about it--a plane loaded with nuclear weapons flying across the country. Wasn't the point of starting two wars to prevent exactly that? As Pogo would have said, we have met the enemy, and he is us.)

A B-52 bomber was mistakenly loaded with five nuclear warheads during a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The bomber carried advanced cruise missiles as part of a Defense Department program to retire 400 of the missiles, the Military Times said, quoting three officers who spoke on condition they remain anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss the incident.

The officers said the nuclear warheads should have been removed before the missiles were mounted onto pylons under the bomber's wings for the Aug. 30 flight from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, the newspaper said Wednesday.

<snip>

(Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070905/ap_on_re_us/bomber_warheads;_ylt=AhUUCCbyR1tXM1e6PqDrI0es0NUE)

[Ian David]

1. We've had nuclear bombs accidentally fall off our planes before over U.S. soil.

That's beside the fact that we're supposed to be kind of careful about keeping track of what we do with our nukes.

I think it's kind of important.

[Purveyor]

2. And the US criticizes Russia's lackluster control of their nuclear weaspons...indeed! n/t

[Poll_Blind]

3. I read something like this and I just have to shake my head.

  It is continually-amazing to me how incredibly inept our government and other governments (and the respective militaries involved) are in handling their nuclear weapons and material.

  The characters involved should be drummed out of the military for not following the proceedures. I guess toilet duty for the rest of their service time would be appropriate but if they can't follow regulations involving nuclear warheads I'm not sure I could completely trust them to refill the hand soap.

  Attention to detail. I think some people have it and some people just....don't.

PB

[dbt]

4. I posted about B-52's over Arkansas a couple of weeks ago.

And the predictable response from DU was "nothing to see here, move along," "your :tinfoilhat: is on too tight," "just a routine exercise," etc, etc, ad nauseum/stir well...

[TwilightGardener]

5. Airmen screwed up--a chain of failures to follow procedure, possibly also

a failure of training. It happens, and I'm sure heads are rolling as we speak, including the squadron commander's.

[htuttle]

14. I don't buy that for a minute

What, you think they store the nukes next to the regular bombs?

Like some Abbott and Costello version of airmen said, "Oh, you mean the ones with YELLOW stripes on them? I thought you meant the green ones!"

Bull. They can't just mistakenly move nukes around. No way.

[Hydra]

6. K&R

Anyone here consider what Bush's comment would have been had one of those bombs "accidentally" exploded on american soil?

"Today, Al-Qaeda operatives detonated..."

[LSK]

7. who wants to bet that the person who made this error gets the medal of freedom?

[tetedur]

8. Wonder if they flew over SAC in Omaha NE?

Just asking

[indepat]

9. Oops, no harm, no foul but it is unlikely that a multitude of goofs will forever cause no harm

[wicket]

10. A commander has been fired:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/09/05/nuclear_bombs_mistakenly_flown_over_us/

:wow:

[Lobster Martini]

12. 'At no time was the public in danger.'

Dear god, I can't believe this paragraph:

"The incident 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 probe, said Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell. He said, 'At no time was the public in danger.'"

How on earth is the public not in danger with nuclear weapons flying overhead?

(Thanks for the link.)

[wicket]

13. Just another day in bizzarro world

:crazy:

[JesterCS]

15. Re:

Well considering Nukes have to be armed with codes, and detonated in a specific way, the likelyhood that they WOULD detonate is very slim. like .001% chance. You dont just drop a nuclear bomb and it explodes when it hits the ground.

[wicket]

11. .

:kick: