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The Palomares hydrogen bombs incident occurred on 17
January 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 over the Mediterranean Sea, off the
coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its
load of fuel ignited, killing all four crew members. The
B-52G broke apart, killing three crew members. Of the four
Mk28 type hydrogen bombs that it carried, three were found on
land, near the small fishing village of Palomares, in
Andalucia. The conventional explosives in two of the weapons
were detonated, resulting in the contamination of a 2km² area
by radioactive plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the
Mediterranean Sea was recovered intact after a 2 1/2 month
long search.
The B-52G began its mission from Seymour Johnson Air Force
Base in North Carolina carrying four Type B28RI hydrogen bombs.
It was dispatched on an airborne alert mission named Operation
Chrome Dome, with a flight plan that was to take it across the
Atlantic Ocean and Europe, where it would follow the borders
of the Soviet Union and finally return home. The lengthy
flight required two mid-air refuellings over Spain. At about
10:30am on 17 January 1966, while flying at 31,000 feet, the
bomber commenced its second aerial refuelling with a KC-135
out of Moron Air Base in southern Spain. The planes collided
with the nozzle of the refuelling boom striking the top of the
B-52 fuselage, creating a force sufficient to break the
longeron and snap off the left wing, which resulted in an
explosion that was witnessed by a second B-52 about a mile
away. All four men on the KC-135 and three men in the after
part of the flight deck of the bomber were killed. Four of
the seven crew members of the bomber managed to parachute to
safety. One of them, Captain Ivens 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 Palomares residents carried Buchanan to a local clinic,
while two others were picked up at sea by a fishing boat. The
last person to be rescued spent 45 minutes in the water before
he, too, was brought aboard another fishing boat. All three
men that landed in the sea were taken to a hospital in Aquilas.
Three of the hydrogen bombs fell to earth near the fishing
village of Palomares. All three were located within 24 hours
following the accident. The fourth weapon landed in the
Mediterranean Sea. The conventional explosives from two of
the bombs which fell on land detonated (essentially what has
come to be referred to as a dirty bomb), causing contamination
with uranium and plutonium of 2km². 1,590 metric tons of
contaminated material were excavated and sent for disposal at
the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina, USA.
To diffuse alarm of contamination, the Spanish minister for
information and tourism, Manuel Fraga, and the US ambassador
Angier Biddle Duke, swam on nearby beaches in front of the
press. First the ambassador and some companions swam at
Mojácar (a resort 15km away) and then Duke and Fraga swam at
the Quitapellejos beach in Palomares.
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. In early October 2006, the
Spanish and the US 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 11 October 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. The discovery occurred
during an investigation being carried out by Spain’s energy
research agency CIEMAT and the US Department of Energy. The
US and Spain have agreed to share the cost of the initial
investigation but according to a US embassy spokesman in Spain,
responsibility for clean up costs is yet to be agreed upon. |
