Washington, D.C.
The Air Force this week said it was investigating how six nuclear warheads were mistakenly loaded onto a B-52 bomber and flown from North Dakota to Louisiana. The cruise missiles attached to the bomber were supposed to have been warhead-free, but when the plane landed at Barksdale Air Force Base last week, officers discovered it was carrying 150-kiloton nukes. The squadron commander in charge of the mission, whose name has not been released, has been relieved of his command. “The weapons were always in our custody,” said Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Ed Thomas, “and there was never a danger to the American public.” All U.S.-based flights of fighters and bombers will be halted next week, the Pentagon said, to allow for a thorough review of procedures.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
5 fact-checked cartoons about Meta firing its fact checkersCartoons Artists take on playing chicken, information superhighway, and more
-
NCHIs: the controversy over non-crime hate incidentsThe Explainer Is the policing of non-crime hate incidents an Orwellian outrage or an essential tool of modern law enforcement?
-
Islamic State: the terror group's second actTalking Point Isis has carried out almost 700 attacks in Syria over the past year, according to one estimate
