RatherBeFlying
30th Jul 2005, 20:11
CounterPunch Article (http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07302005.html) Iran may have the weapons-grade uranium out of three nuclear warheads dumped out of a B-52 back in 1991...
On February 3, 1991, this particular B-52G had been deployed to circle around Baghdad. It was armed with 3 SRAM missiles armed with nuclear warheads....
Hoping to limp back to base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, the crew were heading the plane south just off the coast of Somalia when fires in five of the engines threatened to detonate the heat sensitive fuse mechanisms of the SRAMS. Thinking they would plummet into deep water the crew dumped the nuclear bombs, and the B-52 crashed not long thereafter. Some members of the crew died, others survived and were picked up...
But, our informant tells us, the warheads in fact landed in shallow water, on Somalia's continental shelf. Three months later, in mid-May of 1991, they were allegedly retrieved and passed into the hands of an arms dealer involved in other covert transactions in Somalia at the time.That the Somalia continental shelf is considerably off the great circle course from Baghdad to Diego Garcia raises some doubts, though the electrical problems may have messed up the navigation. Nor am I satisfied that nukes would have been carried over a war zone when there's considerable other ordnance that could have been put to work.
I also doubt that broken arrows would have been abandoned without a considerable search effort and find it hard to believe that your average Somali warlord would have the requisite salvage capability, even if the US Navy was content to allow such a salvage operaton to proceed unhindered.
Was there a B-52 loss at or near this date?
On February 3, 1991, this particular B-52G had been deployed to circle around Baghdad. It was armed with 3 SRAM missiles armed with nuclear warheads....
Hoping to limp back to base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, the crew were heading the plane south just off the coast of Somalia when fires in five of the engines threatened to detonate the heat sensitive fuse mechanisms of the SRAMS. Thinking they would plummet into deep water the crew dumped the nuclear bombs, and the B-52 crashed not long thereafter. Some members of the crew died, others survived and were picked up...
But, our informant tells us, the warheads in fact landed in shallow water, on Somalia's continental shelf. Three months later, in mid-May of 1991, they were allegedly retrieved and passed into the hands of an arms dealer involved in other covert transactions in Somalia at the time.That the Somalia continental shelf is considerably off the great circle course from Baghdad to Diego Garcia raises some doubts, though the electrical problems may have messed up the navigation. Nor am I satisfied that nukes would have been carried over a war zone when there's considerable other ordnance that could have been put to work.
I also doubt that broken arrows would have been abandoned without a considerable search effort and find it hard to believe that your average Somali warlord would have the requisite salvage capability, even if the US Navy was content to allow such a salvage operaton to proceed unhindered.
Was there a B-52 loss at or near this date?