holy crap!

[mckitterick]

B-52 carried nuclear armed cruise missiles by mistake.

Thank the gawds: The base commander has been fired and the crew is no longer certified to handle munitions. How do you "accidentally" load nukes?

Pause for a moment and consider this: What if that bomber had been sent on a mission to, say, drop its payload? What if it had accidentally dropped those NUKES over, say, Kansas City? HOLY CRAP!

Comments

[chernobylred.livejournal.com]

*blink* *blink*

"There are procedures in place and they kicked in and worked," the official said.

Too bad those procedures didn't "kick in" before the fucking plane took off.

[fortyozspartan.livejournal.com]

""There are procedures in place and they kicked in and worked," the official said."

ORLY?!

"The mix-up was reported to President George W. Bush after the nuclear warheads were discovered when the aircraft landed at Barksdale Air Force Base Louisiana, the official said."

Sounds like a bit of a contradiction to me.

[fortyozspartan.livejournal.com]

Then again, maybe I think our "procedures" should keep us in the know on what is hooked to our missiles. I may be wrong!

[arian1.livejournal.com]

What if that bomber had been sent on a mission to, say, drop its payload? What if it had accidentally dropped those NUKES over, say, Kansas City?

You'd have your own live-action version of Jericho, so quit whining ;)

[arian1.livejournal.com]

Are you kidding? This is the military.

[stuology.livejournal.com]

John Lithgow and Steve Guttenburg will save us.

[arian1.livejournal.com]

I take that back, you really are screwed.

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

...well, I wouldn't be in the office today....

[fortyozspartan.livejournal.com]

Heh, I just saw your user icon for this. Hilarious and true.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

*g*

Oops, too late....

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

That crossed my mind.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Why should we keep track of where we keep our nuclear warheads? Sounds like a waste of time. Or bean-countery intervention.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Kewl! Except for the, you know, radiation sickness and stuff.

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

That's why procedures have backups and double checks - because things can go wrong. Duh.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine how so many double-checks went wrong after reading your description of how these procedures work. Just wow.

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

I can't either - my mind boggles. Somebody, several somebodies, had to foul up big time.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

"At no time was there a threat to public safety," said Lieutenant Colonel Ed Thomas.
"It is important to note that munitions were safe, secure and under military control at all times."

Ye-es - but this is the same military control that sent the bloody things into the air in the first place. Why do I feel uncomforted by statement (b), and completely unconvinced by statement (a)? Of course there was a threat to public safety, you stupid man, there were armed nuclear missiles overhead...

[roya-spirit.livejournal.com]

How do you "accidentally" load nukes?"
You don't. Someone fuggered up a mission and this is what the military calls damage control.

What the hell, if you want to really get scared, think about the warhead plant in Kansas City.
(um... I don't think cruise missiles are dropped from B-52s in order to deploy them, but I'm sure that's a technicality)

My question is.. why to Louisiana?

[roya-spirit.livejournal.com]

oh, nver mind... we have a missile mission deployment base there.

er, yah. Mistake, my ass.