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Hi Bob

I know your the king of the flight line, so in light of current events, exactly how does one "accidentally" load nuclear weapons? I would have thought ther was a ton of paperwork not to mention the computer and electronics angle. I would have thought it would be impossible

Jeff Lewis

Hey Bob,
Did you get my PM requesting your address?

Joe D

- piney

Hi Bob

I know your the king of the flight line, so in light of current events, exactly how does one "accidentally" load nuclear weapons? I would have thought ther was a ton of paperwork not to mention the computer and electronics angle. I would have thought it would be impossible

Jeff Lewis

Gut feeling (And I haven't heard anything but the initial story so far. I've been a tad busy quenching smoldering embers around here )

The plane had either been sitting on ground alert loaded or used for load training. Shift change came and day shift figured swing shift will unload the plane. Swing shift load crew got diverted to another job. Plane got scheduled for a flight when another plane wasn't ready (or had a problem) crew looked at forms said 'what the hell they're loaded, it won't hurt to fly with them' (Remember for years there were always B-52s in the air with warloads on board) Someone realized once it got airborne or at the destination or even when it got back AW S#$T! and fessed up and admitted 'we screwed up' (At least I hope that is what happened and it wasn't overheard at the NCO or O club 'you won't believe what the idots over in blue squadron did' by someone who ran to the press)

And the commander loses his job (and will probably be stuck in a corner until he decides to retire)

It's not like the bombs aren't meant to be put in B-52s. They fit in it perfectly well. They even make 'training shapes' that look just like them but are a different color (I think they are a different color, even if I KNEW they were a different color I couldn't discuss it ) that is another possibility someone hooked up a trailer of real bombs at the bomb dump instead of training bombs and loaded the wrong thing. When the crew that was supposed to pick up the real bombs got there and found the training bomnbs they realized there was a problem but by the time they figured out what had happened the plane had taken off.
I would be worried if a weapons troop or crew member loaded a nuke in a U-haul truck and drove it across 3 states to an ex-girlfriends house I mean its SAC (I mean ACC ) Not NASA

Of course I can also come up with some other theories that question the term 'accident' There are times when you do something just to generate the press to let someone know that you don't like something they are doing that you can't officially admit to caring or even knowing about. But that borders on conspiracy theories and paranoia so I'll let it drop

To believe these reports you almost have to believe that the crew didn't know what they were carrying. That's pretty hard to swallow.

apparently they were cruise missiles loaded on the wing pylons does that make it better or worse

Jeff Lewis

Well they are officers After all can you realy trust someone who goes to work in green pajamas?

And about the wing pylons - Not really, who knows maybe they never even looked in the bombbay

Howdy Folks

It has been my experience that for every incident that hits the news, at least 10 didn't. I say this after 1 tour West Germany, 3 South Korea, and 2 OIF. This doesn't even count the stuff that happens in CONUS. But I will say the USAF and USN have probably the more sensitive stuff (Army don't us 8" Nuke or Pershing anymore) to screw up.

Joe D

There was aFront page story about this incident today.

Two Pylons were loaded at the Weapons storage area. Both were supposed to be unarmed with inert 'shapes' installed. The movement of cruise missles from Minot to Barksdale has been an ongoing mission as 400 are to be retired and it had been decided to take them on (what I assume are) training flights. The missles are supposed to be unarmed. There is a 'stamp size' inspection window in the missles where the warhead can be checked live warheads are silver, dummies are 'another color' (I assume blue) The were also supposed to be checked during preflight by the crew. The Crew only checked the 6 on the right side of the aircraft. They got to Barksdale and sat on the aircraft for several hours until 'an airman in the download crew' noticed something unusual.

So under my 'another possibility' theory. Someone picked up the wrong trailer (or a trailer loaded with the wrong weapons) at the bomb dump and since everyone ASSUMED they were inert wepons everyone saw what they expected to see. The paper mentioned that the flights transporting the cruise missles from Minot to Barksdale had become Routine. We've all probably been there with routine tasks you do it often enough you cut corners 'because it's the same as last week'

Not accusing just trying to fill folks in on the rest of the story