B-52's take nuke missiles to Louisiana by mistake

AP/Houston Chronicle:

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

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 today.

A Minot Air Force Base spokeswoman, Sgt. Marelise Wood, referred questions by The Associated Press to the Air Force secretary's office in Washington. A spokesman there was out of the office this morning and not immediately available for comment.

An Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Ed Thomas, told the Military Times that the weapons were in Air Force control at all times and the missiles were safely transferred.

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This is a strange event. I have watched the B-52's doing landing exercises at Barksdale numerous times on trips to visit my parents in Arkansas that took me by the base off of I-20 in Bossier City just east of Shreveport. The planes are over 50 years old, but are still an awesome sight. If they were carrying nukes at the time, it is nice to know they can still handle them with safety.

CNN adds some details.

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The crew was unaware that the plane was carrying nuclear weapons, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the extraordinary sensitivity and security surrounding the case.

The mistake was discovered after the plane's six-hour flight to Louisiana.

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One officer already has been relieved of duty, and several others "decertified" from handling nuclear weapons, officials said.

A military official told CNN there was no nuclear risk to public safety because the weapons were not armed. Officials believe that if the plane had crashed or the missiles somehow had fallen off the wings, the warheads would have remained inert and there would have been no nuclear detonation, though conventional explosive material in the warhead could have detonated.

Military officials also say the missiles could not have been launched because of multiple security procedures required to be enacted before any launch would have been authorized.

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This is a first class screw up. Fortunately the consequences of the screw up will be limited to the personnel files of some in the Air Force. It will not take from my enjoyment in seeing these planes shooting touch and goes at Barksdale.