<http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/05/loose.nukes/index.html>
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Six nuclear warheads on cruise missiles were mistakenly carried on a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana last week, prompting a major investigation, military officials have confirmed.
A B-52 is seen on the ground at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, in this file photo.
The plane took the cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base for decommissioning Thursday, the Air Force said.
"This is a major gaffe, and it's going to cause some heads to roll down the line," said Don Shepperd, a retired Air Force major general and military analyst for CNN.
Shepperd said the United States had agreed in a Cold War-era treaty not to fly nuclear weapons. "It appears that what happened was this treaty agreement was violated," he said.
The warheads should have been removed from the missiles before they were attached to the B-52 bomber, according to military officials. Video Watch the report on the military's investigation »
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 flight to Louisiana.
Minot Air Force Base is in north central North Dakota, and Barksdale Air Force Base is in northwest Louisiana near the Texas border.
[...]
<http://tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/sep/05/staging_nuke_for_iran>
Staging Nuke for Iran? ljohnson's picture By Larry Johnson | bio
Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That's like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.
So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let's call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.
Then he told me something I had not heard before.
section break Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can't imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?
His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.
Now maybe there is an innocent explanation for this? I can't think of one. What is certain is that the pilots of this plane did not just make a last minute decision to strap on some nukes and take them for a joy ride. We need some tough questions and clear answers. What the hell is going on? Did someone at Barksdale try to indirectly warn the American people that the Bush Administration is staging nukes for Iran? I don't know, but it is a question worth asking.
Selections from <http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?threshold=4&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change&sid=289475>
[...]
No matter where they flew them, this was a violation of nuclear handling procedures. I had to deal with these rules many years ago. This kind of screw up is a career ending move.
As much as people like to make fun of the military, there are some things the military does that it takes extremely seriously, and generally has a relatively excellent track record with. Handling nuclear weapons is one of them. Having nuclear weapons somewhere they are not supposed to be scares the military. They could fall into the wrong hands, they could cause an accident (bad publicity not needed), all kinds of issues. Then there are very stringent laws on handling nukes. Stuff you can go to jail for violating.
Maybe there was never any danger of a nuclear explosion, but there was a temporary loss of control of nuclear weapons. Someone caused (by accident, oversight, misinformation, etc.) nuclear weapons to be loaded on a plane and then flown somewhere they are not supposed to be. Each nuclear weapon has a location it is supposed to be in. They may change where from day to day, but by the will of the military they will be in that place. Nukes are not treated the same way as so many other comparatively unimportant items (like toilet seats).
So, whether the potential was there or not for some serious explosion (it was not), there is a very serious breach of handling which in the military will be treated seriously. Yeah, flying over US air space is a big no-no, but the bigger no-no was a temporary misplacement of nuclear weapons. That is huge in military terms.
[...]
Well I was in the Airforce for 20 years. Ten of which was spent maintaining avionics on a B-52. And there is a huge difference between standard cruise missiles and nukes. Those nukes by treaty and national directives aren't supposed to fly anywhere unless there is direct national authority. Meaning President, Vice President,joint chiefs etc.
During the cold war, there was a lot of worry about this type of thing. Each bomber base has an alert facility. That is where the crews wait for what they hope will never come. Well most of them, hope that! There are secret sicko's in every group. There are checklists upon checklists. No enlisted person can work alone on an aircraft, there most be 2 people in view of each other at all times. Each has to have knowledge of the task to recognize when the other is deviating. Inside the aircraft cockpit in addition to the 2 maintenance, you have to have 2 officers both cockpit certified. If you notice something isn't right you stop the task. If your not sure if you trust the other guy, you radio in a 'helping hand'. You both will then spend time spread eagle on the tarmac with a gun pointed at you.
To work on nuclear weapons system, you are subject to the 'personal reliability program' , this means you can lose certification for drinking too much, divorce proceedings etc. Anything where your supervisor or commander believes you might not be thinking about the task at hand. Its non punitive, you can also be temporarily de-certified for a tooth extraction. What seems to me happened here is someone removed that aircraft from alert status and did not notify every one in the checklist. The aircraft munitions didn't get unloaded. This is a major screw up.
[...]
What is amazing is that the weapons made it all the way to Texas without Minot AFB missing them. Without going into details, I can say from experience that the US nuclear warheads are very closely tracked. Before this, I would have said it would be impossible for the base to lose track of them for even a few minutes, much less three and a half hours, and then have to be told by Barksdale that they were on the B52 when it arrived. The thing about the munitions crew being decertified until the investigation is finished is a miss direction. The airmen who load the planes don't make the decisions. And (unless things have changed significantly since I was in the USAF) they would not be able to get the warheads to load without a great deal of security and authorization. You don't just go and pick those things up when you want to. More likely, someone got plane ids or missile serial numbers mixed up on the wok orders. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what went wrong
[...]
-- Andy