"The two 3-4 megaton[a] MK. 39 nuclear bombs separated from the gyrating aircraft as it broke up between 1,000 and 2,000 feet (300 and 610 m). Five of the six arming mechanisms on one of the bombs activated, causing it to execute many of the steps needed to arm itself, such as charging the firing capacitors and, critically, deployment of a 100-foot-diameter (30 m) retard parachute. The parachute allowed that bomb to hit the ground with little damage."
There is some debate as to how many years any bomb parts, including the important bits, may have sat open and unguarded on Canadian soil. There is even the possibility that the core still lies somewhere nearby as we have no definitive answer as to its recovery.
[Cores at this time were transported separate from the bomb. Arming involved manually inserting the core while in flight. It could be anywhere, even thrown into the sea.]
I raise you the world almost ending several times.
First, actual launch orders for nuclear weapons that weren't carried out. [0][1]
Bassett immediately ordered the other launch officer, as Bordne remembers it, “to send two airmen over with weapons and shoot the [lieutenant] if he tries to launch without [either] verbal authorization from the ‘senior officer in the field’ or the upgrade to DEFCON 1 by Missile Operations Center.” [1]
Followed by a myriad of false alarms on both sides too numerous to exhaustively list. [2][3][4]
That "code" was widely known ... to the people controlling the missiles, the only people in the world who could actually use it. Imho that means there was no code.
"Our launch checklist in fact instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no digits other than zero had been inadvertently dialed into the panel."
"WASHINGTON — The Air Force said Wednesday it was only as "an added precaution" that an armored car was hurriedly parked atop a Minuteman 3 silo after the nuclear missile inside gave off false signals suggesting it was about to launch itself nearly four years ago." [They left the brakes off so that, should the cover slide open, the truck might fall into the silo and destroy the missile.]
Several nuclear weapons have been lost over the decades. There's one off the shore of Georgia that's never been found, one in Puget Sound, and a couple more. If you count submarines, there's also the wreckage of the Scorpion which contains two unrecovered nuclear warheads.
In 2013, ReVelle recalled the moment the second bomb's switch was found. “Until my death I will never forget hearing my sergeant say, 'Lieutenant, we found the arm/safe switch.' And I said, 'Great.' He said, 'Not great. It’s on arm.'”
There is a fun conspiracy theory surrounding the crash and the armed status of the bomb; something about a Strangelove-esque conspiracy to initiate WWIII against the USSR, except in this case an alleged saboteur causes the plane crash. I made a brief search for it but you may have to go deeper into the bowels of the internet than I am currently willing in order to find it.
Given the way US export laws and ITAR work, it's safe to say the guy who shipped those nukes from one state to another is in less trouble than the guy who sent the Hellfire parts to Cuba.
So this thing was basically just the seeker head? I can see how there might be tech in they they don't want the cubans to see, but this isn't a stealth bomber. Hellfires are sold/used/shipped all over the world. The russians/chinese have surely acquired some through back channels years ago. If not purchased, then scavenged from downed drones.
I'm shocked that this ended up on a commercial flight. After reading Command and Control though, I'm sure this stuff happened all the time in the past and it was just quietly swept under the rug.
It's an inert missile you can ship pretty much anything on commercial flights with a few exceptions as long as you have the proper customs authorization.
I was surprised too. It's not that it's dangerous, it's that it's potentially sensitive military technology.
According to the WSJ story[1] cited in this link, "the shipping crate was clearly marked as containing material subject to rigorous export controls". Makes me wonder how often this sort of thing gets shipped around, and how many spy agencies have people in place with the world's various freight operations.
Those rules don't apply if you actually ship cargo, as long as the cargo is secured according to regulations it can be put on board even if it's a commercial flight which carries passengers.
Even as a normal passenger you most likely can make arrangements with shipping dangerous goods with any airliner they would most likely direct you to a logistics provider that will handle it according to regulations.
I've bought quite a few dangerous goods like actual pure lithium which were shipped internationally by air using regular post (which in most cases is shipped through regular commercial flights) including actually pure lithium and various pressurized gas containers.
The shipping costs were not even more expensive than what would a normal package of the same size and weight would cost the only difference is that i had to send them signed customs forms approving the import prior to them shipping it to me.
The only other different thing is that on one of the bigger packages (a canister of helium) the local postal service actually called me and said i have to pay extra for a specialized driver with a permit to transport dangerous goods to pick it up and deliver it to me, that actually ended up costing more than the express air shipping and oddly enough only one package was flagged which just shows how poor custom enforcement is actually is unless there's Ebay or Amazon written on the invoice in which case they know exactly how much to rip you off on import taxes.
Meh. I don't see what they could do with it... Industrial espionage maybe, but it's not exactly new tech. The reason people buy missiles from the US has more to do with the cost of setting up weapons production infrastructure than not knowing how to build laser-guided AGMs.
But it is not the first time a mistake has been made. In 2010, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms sold untracked guns to Mexican Drug Cartels AKA Operation Fast and Furious, which led to the death of a US Border Patrol Agent.
Seems weird to me that with their billions of dollars the DoD doesn't operate a shipping network ferrying equipment back and forth that contractors can use.
DoD operated the Military Air Transport Service from 1948 to 1966. It was DoD's own airline, with routes to US military bases, using civilian-type equipment. By the 1960s, civilian aviation was providing better service and using jets, so the MATS airline-type operations were shut down. Since then, DoD does only tactical airlift itself; trips between routine points are commercial, sometimes using commercial charters.
