Wing decertified, COs sacked for nuke mistake

[unhappycamper]

Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne, joined by Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, held a press conference Friday to detail the mistakes that led a B-52 bomber to fly across the country with nuclear-armed missiles attached to its wing.

Wing decertified, COs sacked for nuke mistake
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Oct 19, 2007 21:58:48 EDT

The widespread disregard for nuclear weapons safety standards by airmen at Minot and Barksdale Air Force bases led to the unprecedented “Bent Spear” incident in which six nuclear warheads were mistakenly loaded onto a B-52 and flown from North Dakota to Louisiana on Aug. 29-30, Air Force officials said Friday after an intensive six-week investigation.

~snip~

An “erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards” at the two bases led to five major procedural errors at Minot, which resulted in a weapons loading crew accidentally loading a pylon of nuclear armed air-launched cruise missiles on the wing of a B-52 bomber. The mistake wasn’t discovered for 36 hours, long after the plane had touched down at Barksdale, said Maj. Gen. Richard “Dick” Newton, deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements, and a former 5th Bomb Wing commander, who was tasked to brief the findings.

Since Aug. 30, some 65 airmen of varying ranks — lieutenant colonel and below — have lost their certification in the personnel reliability program, which the Air Force uses to oversee the character of airmen who handle nuclear weapons, said Lt. Col. Ed Thomas, an Air Force spokesman. The large-scale nature of the disciplinary actions points to the widespread nature of the problem.

~snip~

The investigation found this to be an isolated incident, and corrective measures are being taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

“This was an unacceptable mistake and a clear deviation from our exacting standards,” said Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne, who led off the press briefing. “We hold ourselves accountable to the American people and want to ensure proper corrective action is taken.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/airforce_nuke_briefing_071019/



uhc comment: Nice story, but where's the sixth nuke?

[annabanana]

1. "that page has gone AWOL" - at link -

(you WERE joking about nuke #6, right?)

[unhappycamper]

2. The last I heard, six went out.

But only five were found or mentioned at the other end.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

3. SCAPEGOAT or Swift Boat . . .

YOU decide!

Funny how that "chain of command" becomes awful ephemeral when the blame game begins.