Wednesday
12 Nov 2008
US Air Force Pilots Tell of Lost Nuclear Warhead
By Annie Jacobsen in category Behind the Scenes
The BBC has broken a major story involving a government cover up of a nuclear bomb lost by the U.S. Air Force 40 years ago during the crash of a nuclear-armed B-52 near Thule Air Base in Greenland.
The loose nuke, one of four on board the bomber, has never been found. The Pentagon originally told the public that all four weapons had been "destroyed."
The Pentagon believed the Soviet Union would take out the [Thule Air] base as a prelude to a nuclear strike against the US and so in 1960 began flying "Chrome Dome" missions. Nuclear-armed B52 bombers continuously circled over Thule - and could head straight to Moscow if they witnessed its destruction.
On 21 January 1968, U.S. Air Force pilots flying one of those missions were forced to bail out when the bomber they were flying caught on fire and started to crash.
The high explosives surrounding the four nuclear weapons had detonated but without setting off the actual nuclear devices, which had not been armed by the crew.
Eventually, a remarkable operation would unfold over the coming months to recover thousands of tiny pieces of debris scattered across the frozen bay, as well as to collect some 500 million gallons of ice, some of it containing radioactive debris.
During the clean up, USG workers realized they could account for only three weapons. In April of that year, a submarine was sent to search for the missing nuke which had the serial number 78252 — to no avail.
…the underwater search was beset by technical problems and, as winter encroached and the ice began to freeze over, the documents recount something approaching panic setting in.
As well as the fact they contained uranium and plutonium, the abandoned weapons parts were highly sensitive because of the way in which the design, shape and amount of uranium revealed classified elements of nuclear warhead design.
The BBC obtained a declassified US government video which documents the clear-up and "gives some ideas of the scale of the operation." The BBC also reunited the pilots involved in the incident, a video interview of which can be seen here.
The Danish Paper Jyllands-Posten, orignally broke the story in 2000, (speculatively) but did not quote sources, only a "report." They did, however, have the serial number on the bomb.
Greenland is a self-governing Danish territory.