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N0KFQ > TODAY 17.01.17 14:56l 73 Lines 3513 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 19560_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 17
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<SR1BSZ<LU4ECL<F1OYP<KQ0I<KE0GB<N0KFQ
Sent: 170117/1253Z 19560@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1966
H-bomb lost in Spain
On this day, a B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over
Spain's Mediterranean coast, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen
bombs near the town of Palomares and one in the sea. It was not
the first or last accident involving American nuclear bombs.
As a means of maintaining first-strike capability during the Cold
War, U.S. bombers laden with nuclear weapons circled the earth
ceaselessly for decades. In a military operation of this
magnitude, it was inevitable that accidents would occur. The
Pentagon admits to more than three-dozen accidents in which
bombers either crashed or caught fire on the runway, resulting in
nuclear contamination from a damaged or destroyed bomb and/or the
loss of a nuclear weapon. One of the only "Broken Arrows" to
receive widespread publicity occurred on January 17, 1966, when a
B-52 bomber crashed into a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain.
The bomber was returning to its North Carolina base following a
routine airborne alert mission along the southern route of the
Strategic Air Command when it attempted to refuel with a jet
tanker. The B-52 collided with the fueling boom of the tanker,
ripping the bomber open and igniting the fuel. The KC-135
exploded, killing all four of its crew members, but four members
of the seven-man B-52 crew managed to parachute to safety. None
of the bombs were armed, but explosive material in two of the
bombs that fell to earth exploded upon impact, forming craters
and scattering radioactive plutonium over the fields of
Palomares. A third bomb landed in a dry riverbed and was
recovered relatively intact. The fourth bomb fell into the sea at
an unknown location.
Palomares, a remote fishing and farming community, was soon
filled with nearly 2,000 U.S. military personnel and Spanish
civil guards who rushed to clean up the debris and decontaminate
the area. The U.S. personnel took precautions to prevent
overexposure to the radiation, but the Spanish workers, who lived
in a country that lacked experience with nuclear technology, did
not. Eventually some 1,400 tons of radioactive soil and
vegetation were shipped to the United States for disposal.
Meanwhile, at sea, 33 U.S. Navy vessels were involved in the
search for the lost hydrogen bomb. Using an IBM computer, experts
tried to calculate where the bomb might have landed, but the
impact area was still too large for an effective search. Finally,
an eyewitness account by a Spanish fisherman led the
investigators to a one-mile area. On March 15, a submarine
spotted the bomb, and on April 7 it was recovered. It was damaged
but intact.
Studies on the effects of the nuclear accident on the people of
Palomares were limited, but the United States eventually settled
some 500 claims by residents whose health was adversely affected.
Because the accident happened in a foreign country, it received
far more publicity than did the dozen or so similar crashes that
occurred within U.S. borders. As a security measure, U.S.
authorities do not announce nuclear weapons accidents, and some
American citizens may have unknowingly been exposed to radiation
that resulted from aircraft crashes and emergency bomb jettisons.
Today, two hydrogen bombs and a uranium core lie in yet
undetermined locations in the Wassaw Sound off Georgia, in the
Puget Sound off Washington, and in swamplands near Goldsboro,
North Carolina.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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