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Mystery of lost US nuclear bomb
bbc ^

Posted on 11/11/2008 8:55:24 AM PST by austrian

The United States abandoned a nuclear weapon beneath the ice in northern Greenland following a crash in 1968, a BBC investigation has found.

Its unique vantage point - perched at the top of the world - has meant that Thule Air Base has been of immense strategic importance to the US since it was built in the early 1950s, allowing a radar to scan the skies for missiles coming over the North Pole.

The Pentagon believed the Soviet Union would take out the base as a prelude to a nuclear strike against the US and so in 1960 began flying "Chrome Dome" missions. Nuclear-armed B52 bombers continuously circled over Thule - and could head straight to Moscow if they witnessed its destruction.

Greenland is a self-governing province of Denmark but the carrying of nuclear weapons over Danish territory was kept secret.

'Darker story'

But on 21 January 1968, one of those missions went wrong. We reunited two of the pilots, John Haug and Joe D'Amario, 40 years on to tell the story of how their plane ended up crashing on the ice a few miles out from the base.

In the aftermath, military personnel, local Greenlanders and Danish workers rushed to the scene to help.

Eventually, a remarkable operation would unfold over the coming months to recover thousands of tiny pieces of debris scattered across the frozen bay, as well as to collect some 500 million gallons of ice, some of it containing radioactive debris.

A declassified US government video, obtained by the BBC, documents the clear-up and gives some ideas of the scale of the operation. The high explosives surrounding the four nuclear weapons had detonated but without setting off the actual nuclear devices, which had not been armed by the crew....

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: brokenarrow; geopolitics; proliferation
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1 posted on 11/11/2008 8:55:25 AM PST by austrian
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To: austrian

No wonder the ice cap is melting!............


2 posted on 11/11/2008 8:57:35 AM PST by Red Badger (Hey! Look on the bright side! At least Joe Biden is out of the Senate!..........)
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To: Red Badger

LOL


3 posted on 11/11/2008 8:59:07 AM PST by austrian
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To: austrian

That was one damn expensive dud.. thank God.


4 posted on 11/11/2008 9:01:58 AM PST by Ancient Drive (will)
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To: austrian

5 posted on 11/11/2008 9:02:01 AM PST by Wiggins
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To: austrian

Big deal—There are two nukes in the ocean a few hundred miles SE of New Jersey . Dumpedin the 50’s by a plane in trouble . Never found .


6 posted on 11/11/2008 9:02:29 AM PST by Renegade (You go tell my buddies)
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To: austrian; All

Big whoop.

There’s another off the coast near Savannah.

The weapons are DESIGNED NOT TO DETONATE unless a very specific set of instruments are engaged and the bombs do not and WILL NOT detonate on simple impact.

PERIOD.

Everybody relax.


7 posted on 11/11/2008 9:11:05 AM PST by Mr. Jazzy (Happy 233rd Birthday, USMC!!!)
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To: austrian
The United States abandoned a nuclear weapon beneath the ice in northern Greenland following a crash in 1968...

All together now...BUSH'S FAULT!

8 posted on 11/11/2008 9:13:14 AM PST by JRios1968 (Sarah Palin smash Hulk!)
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To: austrian
Air Force finds no trace of lost (1958) nuke (off GA coast)
9 posted on 11/11/2008 9:14:27 AM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: austrian
You never know what you can dig up in Greenland.


10 posted on 11/11/2008 9:15:32 AM PST by Plutarch
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To: Mr. Jazzy

Well, there goes my excuse to post the ONOS!! graphic.


11 posted on 11/11/2008 9:15:41 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (Obama, you are NOT my President!)
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To: Mr. Jazzy
Do you know what a "one point det" is ?

12 posted on 11/11/2008 9:16:20 AM PST by Uri’el-2012 (Psalm 78:35 And they remembered that God was their ROCK, And the Most High God their Redeemer.)
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To: Renegade
There is also one off the Georgia coast near Savanna, pickled by a B-47 which had a collision with an F-86D
13 posted on 11/11/2008 9:18:07 AM PST by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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To: Robe

If I find it, can I keep it?


14 posted on 11/11/2008 9:20:48 AM PST by MARTIAL MONK
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To: JRios1968

All together now...BUSH’S FAULT!


LOL. but wasn´t bush in the air force in 1968?
so we will never know for shure ;-)


15 posted on 11/11/2008 9:21:06 AM PST by austrian
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To: Renegade

One off the coast of Georgia too.


16 posted on 11/11/2008 9:21:23 AM PST by The Sons of Liberty (In Memory of Liberty and Freedom - July 4, 1776 - November 4, 2008)
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To: Plutarch

I saw the (Discovery channel, perhaps Nat’l Geo?) documentary on those guys who pulled that Lightning out of the ice. OMG, ton of work, incredible.

Maybe...I am confusing that with a similar effort (adn similar documentary) to rescue a B-29 from the ice, obviously a considerably larger effort. The poor guys who worked on that for years ultimately got it out, rebuilt it, fired it up, and IIRC a loose toolbox shifted during an early taxi run, ruptured a fuel line, and the whole thing went up in flames. It was utterly heartbreaking.


17 posted on 11/11/2008 9:22:31 AM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (Tired from wondering whether we wake up in the newest socialist country tomorrow.)
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To: austrian

Ask this guy where it is. He's probably shooting bottle rockets at it.

18 posted on 11/11/2008 9:23:42 AM PST by Future Snake Eater ("Get out of the boat and walk on the water with us!”--Sen. Joe Biden)
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To: austrian

Why do I have a metal picture of a bunch of Al-Queda nutjobs on dogsleds trying to figure out how to steer?


19 posted on 11/11/2008 9:24:36 AM PST by Pan_Yan (America has proved it's not racist. Now it needs to prove it's not suicidal.)
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To: Plutarch

and that, my FRiend, is a P-38 Lightning


20 posted on 11/11/2008 9:25:41 AM PST by RSmithOpt (Liberalism: Highway to Hell)
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