Strips 5th Bomber Wing Of Duty Over B-52 Flight

Seventy Air Force airmen face punishment for their involvement in an accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber after an investigation found rules for handling such munitions were ignored, according to the US Air Force.

"There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base," said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations.

Additionally, the 5th Bomb Wing has been de-certified from its "War-Time Mission," according to Newton.

As reported by the Associated Press, the weapon involved was called an Advance Cruise Missile, a stealth weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade Soviet radar and carry a nuclear warhead. The weapons were being decommissioned and were flown by B-52 to Barksdale AFB from Minot, ND on August 29-30.

The B-52's crew did not know they were transporting nuclear warheads, though the Air Force offered no explanation about their role in the colossal bungle.

Among the highest rank to receive punishment was 5th Bomb Wing commander at Minot -- Col. Bruce Emig, who served as the base commander since June. Four officers were also relieved of their commands.

The announcement came October 19, as the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles

Only the missiles were supposed to be taken to Louisiana, but the warheads were to have been removed beforehand and no one noticed the mistake for over a day, as previously reported by ANN.

The reason for the error was the missiles' status -- tracked by a complex schedule -- was not tracked while disarmed, a breach of Air Force and military policy. Under conditional anonymity, an airman explained the crews replaced the schedule with their own "informal" system... though he didn't say why they did that, nor how long they had been doing it their own way, according to the AP.

"This was an unacceptable mistake and a clear deviation from our exacting standards," Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne said at a Pentagon press conference with Newton. "We hold ourselves accountable to the American people and want to ensure proper corrective action has been taken."

"We are making all appropriate changes to ensure this has a minimal chance of ever happening again," Wynne said.

A string of errors that lead to the airmen failing to inspect the missiles warheads is credited for the incident. Air Force officials said that they are implementing tighter restrictions to regain the confidence of the nation in their handling of nuclear devices.

The Air Combat Command ordered a command-wide stand-down -- completed by all Air Force bases on September 14 -- to institute and review new handling procedures.

In addition to the officers punishment, 65 airmen were de-certified from nuclear weapons handling.

This incident marks a one-time exception to US policy that gives the location of nuclear weapons that also required Air Force officials to contact the White House directly about the breach of handling the nukes.

US policy states the exact location of nuclear weapons is never to be confirmed publicly... but Air Force officials made this exception because of its importance to the nation, and the gravity of this mistake.

FMI: www.acc.af.mil