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Originally posted by tubularbills but they were put in the cargo part of the plane. it's not like the plane was carrying bombs that could have been dropped if the pilot pressed the "go" button or whatever. and if the plane would have crashed, they still wouldn't have detonated.

Umm...no.

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The warheads should have been removed from the missiles before they were attached to the B-52 bomber, according to military officials.

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Officials believe that if the plane had crashed or the missiles somehow had fallen off the wings, the warheads would have remained inert and there would have been no nuclear detonation, though conventional explosive material in the warhead could have detonated.

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Military officials also say the missiles could not have been launched because of multiple security procedures required to be enacted before any launch would have been authorized.

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Originally posted by twilightki : It feels like something you'd listen to at 4 in the morning, or listen to in your car while you're going in a tunnel.

no detonation, but perhaps a radioactive leak ?
I saw it on 24! so it must be true

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Originally posted by Omega_M Umm...no.

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Officials believe that if the plane had crashed or the missiles somehow had fallen off the wings, the warheads would have remained inert and there would have been no nuclear detonation, though conventional explosive material in the warhead could have detonated.

emphasis on could. doesn't mean it WILL.

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Officials believe that if the plane had crashed or the missiles somehow had fallen off the wings, the warheads would have remained inert and there would have been no nuclear detonation, though conventional explosive material in the warhead could have detonated.

how is that possible ? isn't it a chain reaction ?

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the emphasis here is on the fact that the missiles were loaded on the wings and were not put in the cargo part of the plane.

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Originally posted by twilightki : It feels like something you'd listen to at 4 in the morning, or listen to in your car while you're going in a tunnel.

better article...

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Nuclear warheads mistakenly flown on B-52 WARHEADS FLOWN ON B-52 By Michael Hoffman, Military Times A B-52 bomber mistakenly loaded with at least five nuclear warheads flew from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, resulting in an Air Force-wide investigation, according to three officers who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident. The B-52 was loaded with Advanced Cruise Missiles, part of a Defense Department effort to decommission 400 of the ACMs. But the nuclear warheads should have been removed at Minot before being transported to Barksdale, the officers said. The missiles were mounted onto the pylons of the bomber's wings. Advanced Cruise Missiles carry a W80-1 warhead with a yield of 5 to 150 kilotons and are specifically designed for delivery by B-52 strategic bombers. Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Ed Thomas said the transfer was safely conducted and the weapons were in Air Force custody and control at all times. However, the mistake was not discovered until the B-52 landed at Barskdale, which left the warheads unaccounted for during the approximately 3-1/2 hour flight between the two bases, the officers said. "Air Force standards are very exacting when it comes to munitions handling," Thomas said. "The weapons were always in our custody and there was never a danger to the American public." An investigation headed by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, director of Air and Space Operations at Air Combat Command Headquarters, was launched immediately to find the cause of the mistake and figure out how it could have been prevented, Thomas said. Air Force officials wouldn't officially specify whether nuclear weapons were involved, in accordance with long-standing Defense Department policy regarding nuclear munitions, Thomas said. However, the three officers close to the situation did confirm the warheads were nuclear. The crews involved with the mistaken load at the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot have been temporarily decertified from performing their duties involving munitions pending corrective actions or additional training, Thomas said. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the munitions squadron commander also was relieved of his duties. The AP also reported that the bomber was carring six nuclear warheads, not five as sources told the Military Times. Officials at Minot immediately conducted an inventory of its nuclear weapons after the oversight was discovered, and Thomas said he could confirm that all remaining nuclear weapons at Minot are accounted for. At no time was there a risk for a nuclear detonation, even if the B-52 crashed on its way to Barksdale, said Steve Fetter, a former Defense Department official who worked on nuclear weapons policy in 1993-94. A crash could ignite the high explosives associated with the warhead, and possibly cause a leak of the plutonium, but the warheads' elaborate safeguards would prevent a nuclear detonation from occurring, he said. "The main risk would have been the way the Air Force responded to any problems with the flight because they would have handled it much differently if they would have known nuclear warheads were onboard," he said. The risk of the warheads falling into the hands of rogue nations or terrorists was minimal since the weapons never left the United States, according to Fetter and Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, an independent research and policy think tank in Washington, D.C. Air Combat Command will have a command-wide mission stand down Sept. 14 to review their procedures in response to this oversight, he said. "The Air Force takes its mission to safeguard weapons seriously," he said. "No effort will be spared to ensure that the matter is thoroughly and completely investigated."

btw, i don't understand how your article said that it was a 6 hour flight, because it's not.

i sense conspiracy

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Originally posted by stren how is that possible ? isn't it a chain reaction ?

the style of nuke that was placed on the missile needs some kind of ignition. you drop it out of the sky, it won't do anything. it's not like they were carrying the same shit that got dropped on Hiroshima

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Originally posted by stren how is that possible ? isn't it a chain reaction ?

A chain reaction does not occur unless the uranium reaches a critical mass. From what I have read somewhere, there needs to be a trigger mechanism that fires additional uranium into the bomb mass to make it critical. Or, a conventional explosion compresses the uranium mass to a higher density so that it reaches criticality. Besides, there must be a number of safety interlocks installed into the system to prevent unwanted detonations.

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Originally posted by twilightki : It feels like something you'd listen to at 4 in the morning, or listen to in your car while you're going in a tunnel.

Last edited by Omega_M on Sep-05-2007 at 21:50

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Originally posted by Omega_M A chain reaction does not occur unless the uranium reaches a critical mass. From what I have read somewhere, there needs to be some trigger mechanism that fires additional uranium into the bomb mass to make it critical. Or, a conventional explosion compresses the uranium mass to a higher density so that it reaches criticality. Besides, there must be a number of safety interlocks installed into the system to prevent unwanted detonations.

i.e. if the plane crashed, it wouldn't have detonated anything. and there wouldn't have been this nuclear explosion that would have wiped out millions of people like everyone is lead to believe would have happened.

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Originally posted by Omega_M Or, a conventional explosion compresses the uranium mass to a higher density so that it reaches criticality.

that's what i meant

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