B-52 flew nuclear bombs across US by mistake

B-52 bomber flew the length of the United States mistakenly loaded with as many as six nuclear armed cruise missiles, US military officials confirmed today.

The mix-up last week was only discovered after the aircraft landed at Barksdale air force base in Louisiana after making the three and a half hour journey from Minot Air Base in North Dakota.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said up to six cruise missiles loaded on to the plane were found to have nuclear warheads on them by mistake.

The incident was first reported by the Military Times newspaper, which said the air launched cruise missiles can carry nuclear warheads of five to 150 kilotons, or 15 times the strength of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The aircraft was loaded with cruise missiles as part of a mission to decommission 400 of the weapons. The warheads should have never have been loaded, officers admitted.

The discovery was reported to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, and to President George W Bush.

Experts said there was no risk of a nuclear detonation, even if the aircraft had crashed.
Steve Fetter, a former Pentagon official who worked on nuclear policy in the 1990s, said that although a major conventional explosion and a plutonium leak could have occurred, the warheads' safeguards would have prevented a nuclear detonation.

"The main risk would have been the way the air force responded to any problems with the flight because they would have handled it much differently if they known nuclear warheads were onboard," he said.

Lt Col Ed Thomas, a spokesman for the air force, said the crews involved with loading the devices had been "temporarily decertified" from duties involving munitions.

'The air force takes its mission to safeguard weapons seriously," he said.


Source: www.telegraph.co.uk By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 1:19am BST 06/09/2007

Photo: The B-52 bomber has been flown by the US Air Force since 1955


(9.12.2007)