 The B28RI nuclear bomb, recovered from 2,850 feet (869 m) of water, on the deck of the USS Petrel. |
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | January 17, 1966 |
| Type | Mid-air collision |
| Site | Mediterranean Sea near Palomares, Almería 37°14′57″N 1°47′49″W / 37.24917°N 1.79694°WCoordinates: 37°14′57″N 1°47′49″W / 37.24917°N 1.79694°W |
| Total fatalities | 7 |
| First aircraft | |
| Type | B-52G |
| Operator | Strategic Air Command, United States Air Force |
| Tail number | 58-0256 |
| Flight origin | Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina |
| Destination | Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina |
| Crew | 7 |
| Fatalities | 3 |
| Survivors | 4 |
| Second aircraft | |
| Type | KC-135 Stratotanker |
| Operator | United States Air Force |
| Flight origin | Morón Air Base |
| Destination | Morón Air Base |
| Crew | 4 |
| Fatalities | 4 |
| Survivors | 0 |
The Palomares Incident or 1966 Palomares B-52 crash occurred on January 17, 1966, when a B-52G bomber of the USAF Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refuelling at 31,000 feet (9,450 m) over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard.[1]
Of the four Mk28 type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried,[2] three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares in the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora, Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impacting the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer (490-acre) (0.78 square mile) area by radioactive plutonium (akin to a dirty bomb explosion). The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a 2½ month-long search.[3]
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The B-52G began its mission from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, carrying four Type B28RI hydrogen bombs[3] on a Cold War airborne alert mission named Operation Chrome Dome. The flight plan took the aircraft East across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea towards the European borders of the Soviet Union before returning home. The lengthy flight required two mid-air refuelings over Spain.[1]
At about 10:30 a.m. on January 17, 1966, while flying at 31,000 feet (9,450 m), the bomber commenced its second aerial refueling with a KC-135 out of Morón Air Base in southern Spain. The B-52 pilot, Major Larry G. Messinger, later recalled,[4]
"We came in behind the tanker, and we were a little bit fast, and we started to overrun him a little bit. There is a procedure they have in refueling where if the boom operator feels that you’re getting too close and it’s a dangerous situation, he will call, 'Break away, break away, break away.' There was no call for a breakaway, so we didn’t see anything dangerous about the situation. But all of a sudden all hell seemed to break loose."
The planes collided, with the nozzle of the refueling boom striking the top of the B-52 fuselage, breaking the longeron and snapping off the left wing,[5][6] which resulted in an explosion that was witnessed by a second B-52 about a mile away.[7] All four men on the KC-135 and three of the seven men on the bomber were killed.
Those killed in the tanker were boom operator Master Sergeant Lloyd Potolicchio, pilot Major Emil J. Chapla, copilot Captain Paul R. Lane and navigator Captain Leo E. Simmons.
On board the bomber, navigator First Lieutenant Steven G. Montanus, electronic warfare officer First Lieutenant George J. Glessner and gunner Technical Sergeant Ronald P. Snyder were killed.[5][6] Montanus was seated on the lower deck of the main cockpit and was able to eject from the plane, but his parachute never opened.[5] Glessner and Snyder were on the upper deck, near the point where the refueling boom struck the fuselage, and were not able to eject.[6]
Four of the seven crew members of the bomber managed to parachute to safety: Major Messinger, aircraft commander Captain Charles F. Wendorf, copilot First Lieutenant Michael J. Rooney and radar-navigator Captain Ivens Buchanan.[1][8] Buchanan received burns from the explosion and was unable to separate himself from his ejection seat, but he was nevertheless able to open his parachute, and he survived the impact with the ground. The other three surviving crew members landed safely several miles out to sea.[4]
The Palomares residents carried Buchanan to a local clinic, while Wendorf and Rooney were picked up at sea by the fishing boat Dorita. The last to be rescued was Messinger, who spent 45 minutes in the water before he was brought aboard the fishing boat Agustin y Rosa by Francisco Simó Orts. All three men that landed in the sea were taken to a hospital in Águilas.[1]
The aircraft and hydrogen bombs fell to earth near the fishing village of Palomares. This settlement is part of Cuevas del Almanzora municipality, in the Almeria province of Andalucía, Spain. Three of the weapons were located on land within 24 hours of the accident—two had exploded on impact, spreading contaminated material while a third was found relatively intact in a riverbed. The fourth weapon could not be found despite an intensive search of the area—the only part that was recovered was the parachute tail plate, leading searchers to postulate that the weapon's parachute had deployed, and that the wind had carried it out to sea.[1][3][9]
During early stages of recovery after the accident the 66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, flying RF-101C Voodoos out of RAF Upper Heyford near Oxford, England, provided aerial photographs to assist in the recovery operation and to document the crash site.[citation needed]
On January 22, the Air Force contacted the U.S. Navy for assistance. The Navy convened a Technical Advisory Group (TAG), Chaired by RADM L. V. Swanson with Dr. John P. Craven and CAPT Willard F. Searle, Jr. to identify resources and skilled personnel that needed to be moved to Spain.[10]
The search for the fourth bomb was carried out by means of a novel mathematical method, Bayesian search theory, led by Dr. John Craven.[10] This method assigns probabilities to individual map grid squares, then updates these as the search progresses. Initial probability input is required for the grid squares, and these probabilities made use of the fact that a local fisherman, Francisco Simó Orts,[3] popularly known since then as "Paco el de la bomba" ("Bomb Frankie"),[11] witnessed the bomb entering the water at a certain location. Orts was contacted by the U.S. Air Force to assist in the search operation.
The United States Navy assembled the following ships in response to Air Force request for assistance:[12]
Rear Admiral Walter T. Piotti Jr., who would later command the search for Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shot down by the Soviets on Sept. 1, 1983, considered the Palomares incident and the search and rescue/salvage operations for KAL 007 to be in a class by themselves as far as the scope of the naval undertaking. Comparing the KAL 007 incident to this one, Piotti stated, “Not since the search for the hydrogen bomb lost off Palomares, Spain has the U.S. Navy undertaken a search effort of the magnitude or import of the search for the wreckage of KAL Flight 007.”[14]
The recovery operation was led by Supervisor of Salvage, Capt Searle.[10] Hoist, Petrel and Tringa brought 150 qualified divers who searched to 120 feet with compressed air, to 210 feet with mixed gas, and to 350 feet (110 m) with hard-hat rigs;[15] but the bomb lay in an uncharted area of the Rio Almanzora canyon on a 70-degree slope at a depth of 2,550 feet (780 m).[15] After a search that continued for 80 days following the crash, the bomb was located by the DSV Alvin on March 17, but was lost when the Navy attempted to bring it to the surface.[16]
Alvin relocated the fourth bomb on 2 April, this time at a depth of 2,900 feet (880 m). [9]. On 7 April, an unmanned torpedo recovery vehicle, CURV, became entangled in the weapon's parachute while attempting to attach a line to it. A decision was made to raise CURV and the weapon together to a depth of 100 feet (30 m), where divers attached cables to them. The bomb was brought to the surface by USS Petrel (ASR-14).
Once the bomb was located, Simó Orts appeared at the First District Federal Court in New York City with his lawyer, Herbert Brownell, formerly Attorney General of the United States under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, claiming salvage rights on the recovered hydrogen bomb. According to Craven:[17]
"It is customary maritime law that the person who identifies the location of a ship to be salved has the right to a salvage award if that identification leads to a successful recovery. The amount is nominal, usually 1 or 2 percent, sometimes a bit more, of the intrinsic value to the owner of the thing salved. But the thing salved off Palomares was a hydrogen bomb, the same bomb valued by no less an authority than the Secretary of Defense at $2 billion—each percent of which is, of course, $20 million."
The Air Force settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.[3]
At 10:40 a.m. UTC, the accident was reported at the Command Post of the Sixteenth Air Force, and it was confirmed at 11:22. The commander of the U.S. Air Force at Torrejon Air Base, Spain, Major General Delmar E. Wilson, immediately traveled to the scene of the accident with a Disaster Control Team. Further Air Force personnel were dispatched later the same day, including nuclear experts from U.S. government laboratories.[18]
The first weapon to be discovered was found nearly intact. However, the conventional explosives from the other two bombs that fell on land detonated without setting off a nuclear explosion (cf. dirty bomb). This ignited the pyrophoric plutonium, producing a cloud that was dispersed by a 30-knot wind. A total of 260 ha (2 square kilometres (0.8 sq mi)) was contaminated with radioactive material. This included residential areas, farmland (especially tomato farms) and woods.[19]
To defuse alarm of contamination, on March 8[20] the Spanish minister for information and tourism Manuel Fraga and the US ambassador Angier Biddle Duke swam on nearby beaches in front of press.[21] First the ambassador and some companions swam at Mojácar[20] (a resort 15 km (9 mi) away) and then Duke and Fraga swam at the Quitapellejos beach in Palomares.
Despite the cost and number of personnel involved in the cleanup, forty years later there remain traces of the contamination. Snails have been observed with unusual levels of radioactivity.[22] Additional tracts of land have also been appropriated for testing and further cleanup. However, no indication of health issues has been discovered among the local population in Palomares.[21]
President Lyndon B. Johnson was first apprised of the situation in his morning briefing the same day as the accident. He was told that the 16th Nuclear Disaster Team had been sent to investigate, per the standard procedures for this type of accident. News stories related to the crash began to appear the following day, and it achieved front page status in both the New York Times and Washington Post on January 20. Reporters sent to the accident scene covered angry demonstrations by the local residents. On February 4, an underground Communist organization successfully initiated a protest by 600 people in front of the U.S. Embassy in Spain.[20]
Four days after the accident, the Spanish government stated that "the Palomares incident was evidence of the dangers created by NATO's use of the Gibraltar airstrip", announcing that NATO aircraft would no longer be permitted to fly over Spanish territory either to or from Gibraltar.[23] On January 25, as a diplomatic concession, the U.S. announced that it would no longer fly over Spain with nuclear weapons, and on the 29th the Spanish government formally banned U.S. flights over its territory that carried such weapons. This caused other nations hosting U.S. forces to review their policies, with the Philippine Foreign Secretary Narciso Ramos calling for a new treaty to restrict the operation of U.S. military aircraft in Filipino airspace.[20]
Palomares and another accident involving nuclear bombers two years later near Thule Air Base, in Greenland, made Operation Chrome Dome politically untenable, leading the U.S. Department of Defense to announce that it would be "re-examining the military need" for continuing the program.[24] Forty years later in the town of Palomares, most people prefer to forget the incident, and it is now noted only by a street named "January 17, 1966".[21]
Soil with contamination levels above 1.2 MBq/m2 was placed in 250 L drums and shipped to the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina, USA for burial. A total of 2.2 ha was decontaminated by this technique, producing 6,000 barrels. 17 ha of land with lower levels of contamination was mixed to a depth of 30 cm by harrowing and plowing. On rocky slopes with contamination above 120 kBq/m2, the soil was removed with hand tools and shipped to the U.S. in barrels.[19]
In 2004, a study revealed that there was still some significant contamination present in certain areas, and the Spanish government subsequently expropriated some plots of land which would otherwise have been slated for agriculture use or housing construction.[25] In early October 2006, the Spanish and United States governments agreed to decontaminate the remaining areas and share the workload and costs, which are hitherto unknown as it first needs to be determined to what extent leaching of the plutonium has occurred in the 40 years since the incident.
On October 11, 2006, Reuters reported that higher than normal levels of radiation were detected in snails and other wildlife in the region, indicating there may still be dangerous amounts of radioactive material underground.[22] The discovery occurred during an investigation being carried out by Spain's energy research agency CIEMAT and the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. and Spain have agreed to share the cost of the initial investigation, set to begin in November, but according to a U.S. embassy spokesman in Spain responsibility for clean up costs is yet to be agreed upon.
In April 2008, CIEMAT announced they had found two trenches, totalling 2,000 cubic meters volume, where the U.S. Army stored contaminated earth during the 1966 operations. The American government agreed in 2004 to pay for the decontamination of the grounds, and the cost of the removal and transportation of the contaminated earth has been estimated at $2 million. The trenches were found near the cemetery, where one of the nuclear devices was retrieved in 1966, and they were probably dug at the last moment by American troops before leaving Palomares. CIEMAT expects to find remains of plutonium and americium once an exhaustive analysis of the earth is carried out.[26] [27]
The empty casings of two of the bombs involved in this incident are now on display in the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[4]
While serving on the salvage ship USS Hoist (ARS-40) during recovery operations, Navy diver Carl Brashear had his leg crushed in a deck accident. His story was the inspiration for the 2000 Cuba Gooding, Jr., film Men of Honor.[28]
In March 2009, TIME magazine identified the Palomares accident as one of the world's "worst nuclear disasters".[29]
  | Spanish Town Struggles to Forget Its Moment on the Brink of a Nuclear Cataclysm - The New York Times > Log In |
| | n-tv: - Atomkatastrophe von 1966 : USA und Spanien entseuchen - n-tv.de |
| | Jan. 17, 1966: H-Bombs Rain Down on a Spanish Fishing Village - Jan. 17, 1966: H-Bombs Rain Down on a Spanish Fishing Village |
| | The Worst Nuclear Disasters - The Worst Nuclear Disasters - Photo Essays - TIME |
| | Oral history - The Rubicon Foundation: CAPT Searle |
| | Broken Arrow - Cw4.cfm || Tour || The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History |
| | Francisco Simó, 'Paco el de la bomba' de Palomares - Francisco Simó, 'Paco el de la bomba' de Palomares · ELPAÍS.com |
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