January 17th - Palomares Incident

On this day, in 1966, a non-musical B-52 collided with another US military jet and dropped its payload of four nuclear bombs near the town ofPalomeres , Spain. It could have been another Hiroshima if they hadn't insisted on so many damn safety mechanisms. Time magazine called it one of the world's "worst nuclear disasters." Thank you Time magazine for your insightful reporting. Maybe you could do a special on the world's best nuclear disasters, and the winner would be the American nuclear family. The statusquo takes one in the bread-basket!

Three of the bombs landed on land where all good landing is done. The non-nuclear explosives of two of the explosives exploded on impact, as explosives are want to do. This resulted in a conventional explosion distributing radioactive material over a large area. Today, we know this type of weapon as a "dirty bomb", but in 1966 it was known as a "bit of a kerfuffle." People were very level-headed in those days.

The doomed B-52 was dispatched as part of Operation Chrome Dome [sic], which was the American's mission to use up aviation fuel and cause fear in the hearts of gentile men and children everywhere. The mission's purpose was to keep a large number of B-52s armed, fueled and in the air at all times. They achieved this goal along with the unplanned achievement of no less than three major nuclear incidents.

Of course, there is the nuclear incident we all know and love, the Palomares incident. There was also the Yuba City incident when a B-52 ran out of fuel. The cowardly aircrew ejected and the plane crashed to the earth. The nuclear weapons remained intact but a fireman was killed en route to the crash scene. Many suspect this was a commie plan to kill fire-fighters.

The other nuclear fubar was the crash at Thule airbase. A fire forced yet another cowardly aircrew to eject and the plane was left to crash onto sea-ice. One crew member did not escape because he did not have an ejection seat. He knew he had forgotten something when he was getting on-board that morning. This time the commies were more successful; the nuclear weapons ruptured and contaminated a small, insignificant area known as Greenland. The yanks and the Danes launched a major clean-up and made Greenland all nice again, but one nuclear weapon was never accounted for. It could be anywhere, in fact it could be behind you right now, although that is unlikely.

Of course Time magazine jumped right on board and declared it one of the world's "worst nuclear disasters." Is there anything they don't declare one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.

These incidies made the Americans rethink their policy of crashing planes first and asking question later. Operation Chrome Dome was discontinued immediately because it was dangerous and had a funny name. Thepolitical repercussions of having nuclear weapons deployed at all times were too much. The Americans decided to buy a pony instead. A pony with a twenty mega-tonne nuke strapped to its back.Woah Engelbert!