1966 Palomares incident

Collision between a USAF B-52G and KC-135 over the Mediterranean Sea near Spain

1966 Palomares incident

The B28FI nuclear bomb, recovered from 2,850 feet (870 m) of water, on the deck of the USS Petrel.

Collision
Date| 17 January 1966 (1966-01-17)
Summary| Mid-air collision
Site| near Palomares, Almería, Spain
37°14′57″N 1°47′49″W﻿ / ﻿37.24917°N 1.79694°W﻿ / 37.24917; -1.79694
Total fatalities| 7
Total survivors| 4
First aircraft

58-0192, an aircraft similar to the B-52 involved
Type| Boeing B-52G Stratofortress
Operator| Strategic Air Command, United States Air Force
Registration| 58-0256
Flight origin| Seymour Johnson Air Force Base
North Carolina, United States
Destination| Seymour Johnson Air Force Base
Occupants| 7
Crew| 7
Fatalities| 3
Survivors| 4
Second aircraft

56-3595, an aircraft similar to the second aircraft involved
Type| KC-135 Stratotanker
Operator| United States Air Force
Registration| 61-0273
Flight origin| Morón Air Base, Spain
Destination| Morón Air Base
Occupants| 4
Crew| 4
Fatalities| 4
Survivors| 0

The Palomares incident occurred on 17 January 1966, when a United States Air Force B-52G bomber collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refueling at 31,000 feet (9,450 m) over the Mediterranean Sea, near the Spanish village of Palomares in Almería province. The collision destroyed the tanker, killing all four crew members, and caused the bomber to break apart, resulting in the deaths of three of its seven crew members.[1] The B-52G was participating in Operation Chrome Dome, a Cold War airborne alert mission involving continuous flights of nuclear-armed bombers.

At the time of the accident, the B-52G was carrying four B28FI Mod 2 Y1 thermonuclear bombs.[2][3][4] Three of these bombs fell on land near Palomares; the conventional explosives in two detonated upon impact, dispersing plutonium and contaminating approximately 2 square kilometers (0.77 sq mi) of terrain. The fourth bomb fell into the Mediterranean Sea and was recovered intact after an extensive 80-day search involving the U.S. Navy, including the use of submersibles such as DSV Alvin. A local fisherman, Francisco Simó Orts, witnessed the bomb's descent into the sea and assisted in its recovery.[5]

In response to the contamination, the U.S. and Spanish authorities conducted cleanup operations, removing approximately 1,750 tons of radioactive soil, which was shipped to the United States for disposal.[6] Despite these efforts, residual contamination persisted, leading to ongoing monitoring and a 2015 agreement between Spain and the U.S. to further remediate the area.[7] As of 2025, some contaminated land remains, and the cleanup has not been fully completed.[8]

Politically, the incident prompted Spain to ban U.S. flights carrying nuclear weapons over its territory. The Palomares incident, along with a similar accident in Thule, Greenland, in 1968, contributed to the termination of Operation Chrome Dome. Despite its significance, the town of Palomares has no official monument commemorating the event, although a street named "17 January 1966" serves as a reminder.

## Accident

[edit]

Operation Chrome Dome flight path over southern Europe, showing refueling tracks

The B-52G began its mission from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, carrying four B28FI Mod 2 Y1 thermonuclear bombs on a Cold War airborne alert mission named Operation Chrome Dome. The flight plan took the aircraft east across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea towards the European borders of the Soviet Union before returning home. The lengthy flight required two mid-air refuelings over Spain.[1]

At about 10:30 am on 17 January 1966, while flying at 31,000 feet (9,450 m), the bomber commenced its second aerial refueling with a KC-135 out of Morón Air Base in southern Spain. The B-52 pilot, Major Larry G. Messinger, later recalled,[9]

> We came in behind the tanker, and we were a little bit fast, and we started to overrun him a little bit. There is a procedure they have in refueling where if the boom operator feels that you're getting too close and it's a dangerous situation, he will call, "Break away, break away, break away." There was no call for a break away, so we didn't see anything dangerous about the situation. But all of a sudden, all hell seemed to break loose.

Boom operator's view of a B-52 from a KC-135 tanker

The planes collided, with the nozzle of the refueling boom striking the top of the B-52 fuselage, breaking a longeron and snapping off the left wing,[10][11] which resulted in an explosion that was witnessed by a second B-52 about a mile (1.6 km) away.[12] All four men on the KC-135 and three of the seven men on the bomber were killed.

Palomares

Morón Air Base

class=notpageimage|

Spain

Those killed in the tanker were boom operator Master Sergeant Lloyd Potolicchio, pilot Major Emil J. Chapla, co-pilot Captain Paul R. Lane, and navigator Captain Leo E. Simmons.

On board the bomber, navigator First Lieutenant Steven G. Montanus, electronic warfare officer First Lieutenant George J. Glessner, and gunner Technical Sergeant Ronald P. Snyder were killed.[10][11] Montanus was seated on the lower deck of the main cockpit and was able to eject from the plane, but his parachute never opened.[10] Glessner and Snyder were on the upper deck, near the point where the refueling boom struck the fuselage, and were not able to eject.[11]

Four of the seven crew members of the bomber managed to parachute to safety: in addition to pilot Major Messinger, aircraft commander Captain Charles F. Wendorf, copilot First Lieutenant Michael J. Rooney, and radar-navigator Captain Ivens Buchanan successfully bailed out.[1][13] 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 survived the impact with the ground. The other three surviving crew members landed safely several miles out to sea.[9]

The Palomares residents carried Buchanan to a local clinic, while Wendorf and Rooney were picked up at sea by the fishing boat Dorita. The last to be rescued was Messinger, who spent 45 minutes in the water before he was brought aboard the fishing boat Agustin y Rosa by Francisco Simó. All three men who landed in the sea were taken to a hospital in Águilas.[1]

## Weapons

[edit]

The weapons lost during the accident were four B28FI Mod 2 Y1 thermonuclear bombs.[4]

The letters FI indicated B28 bombs configured in the full fuzing internal configuration. A full fuzing capability means the weapons could be delivered via all bomb delivery options, including free-fall airburst, retarded airburst, freefall groundburst and laydown groundburst delivery.[14] In this configuration, the W28 warhead was fitted between a Mk28 Mod 3F shock-absorbing nose and a Mk28 Mod 0 FISC rear end containing a parachute. The shock-absorbing nose enabled the weapon to survive laydown delivery, while the parachute slowed the weapon down in retarded airburst and laydown delivery.[15]

The Mod 2 nomenclature indicates the hardened version of the weapon designed to survive laydown delivery; earlier Mod 0 and Mod 1 weapons could not survive the forces involved.[16] The Y1 nomenclature indicates a W28 warhead with a yield of 1.1 megatonnes of TNT (4,600 TJ).[17]

## Weapons recovery

[edit]

The aircraft and weapons fell to the ground near the fishing village of Palomares, part of the Cuevas del Almanzora municipality in Almeria province, Spain. Three of the weapons were located on land within 24 hours of the accident—the conventional explosives in two had exploded on impact, spreading radioactive contamination, while a third was found relatively intact in a riverbed. The fourth weapon could not be found despite an intensive search of the area—the only part that was recovered was the parachute tail plate, leading searchers to postulate that the weapon's parachute had deployed, and that the wind had carried it out to sea.[1][5][18]

On 22 January, the Air Force contacted the U.S. Navy for assistance. The Navy convened a Technical Advisory Group (TAG), chaired by Rear Admiral L. V. Swanson with Dr. John P. Craven and Captain Willard Franklyn Searle, to identify resources and skilled personnel that needed to be moved to Spain.[19]

The search for the fourth bomb was carried out by means of a novel mathematical method, Bayesian search theory, led by Craven.[19] This method assigns probabilities to individual map grid squares, then updates these as the search progresses. Initial probability input is required for the grid squares, and these probabilities made use of the fact that a local fisherman, Francisco Simó Orts,[5] popularly known since as "Paco el de la bomba ("Bomb Paco" or "Bomb Frankie"),[20] witnessed the bomb entering the water at a certain location. Simó Orts was hired by the U.S. Air Force to assist in the search operation.

The United States Navy assembled the following ships in response to the Air Force request for assistance:[21]

Alvin submersible

* USS Kiowa, a Navajo class fleet tug, arrived 27 January,[22] first on scene[citation needed]
* USS Macdonough, flagship through January
* USS Nimble
* USS Pinnacle, found UQS-1 SONAR contact where Francisco Simo-Orts saw the bomb fall
* USS Rival, mother ship for PC3B submersible
* USS Sagacity, confirmed Pinnacle's SONAR contact
* USS Salute
* USS Skill
* USS Nespelen
* USS Fort Snelling, served as a support ship for the submersibles
* USS Boston, flagship 30 January – 15 March
* USS Albany, flagship 15 March through April
* USS Notable, minesweeper of Minesweeper Division 85 out of Charleston, SC, supported both submersibles ‘’Aluminaut’’ and ‘’Alvin’’ during the search; Jon Lindbergh piloted the "Alvin" submersible and supported the Westinghouse ocean-bottom, side-scanning sonar (OBSS). That sonar array, deployed beneath the USS Notable, may have detected the nuclear bomb which was still aboard the B-52 bomber when it entered the water. [citation needed]
* USS Plymouth Rock, transported Aluminaut and Alvin to the search site
* USS Petrel
* USS Tringa
* USS Charles R. Ware[23]
* USS Hoist
* USS Lindenwald, transported Aluminaut to Miami, Florida, after Palomares incident
* USNS Mizar
* USNS Dutton
* DSV Alvin
* Aluminaut
* PC-3B (Ocean Systems, Inc. submersible capable of searching to 600 feet (180 m))
* Deep Jeep (a Navy submersible capable of diving to 2,000 feet (610 m))
* CURV-I [1] (Cable-Controlled Underwater Recovery Vehicle)
* USS Luiseno, removed aircraft wreck debris from the search site
* USS Everglades, removed aircraft wreck debris from the search site
* USNS Lt. George W. G. Boyce, removed radioactive contaminated soil from Spain.

Additionally, the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal and various other units of the Sixth Fleet made a brief stopover at Palomares on the morning of 15 March 1966; Forrestal anchored at 09:03 and departed at 12:19.[24]

The recovery operation was led by the Supervisor of Salvage, Captain Searle.[19] Hoist, Petrel and Tringa brought 150 qualified divers who searched to 120 feet (37 m) with compressed air, to 210 feet (64 m) with mixed gas, and to 350 feet (110 m) with hard-hat rigs;[25] but the bomb lay in an uncharted area of the Rio Almanzora canyon on a 70-degree slope at a depth of 2,550 feet (780 m).[25] After a search that continued for 80 days following the crash, the bomb was located by the DSV Alvin on 17 March, but was dropped and temporarily lost when the Navy attempted to bring it to the surface.[26] After the loss of the recovered bomb, the ship's positions were fixed by Decca HI-FIX position-locating equipment for subsequent recovery attempts.[27]

The recovered thermonuclear bomb displayed on the fantail of the submarine rescue ship USS Petrel after it was located by DSV Alvin and recovered by CURV-I, pictured, at a depth of 2,500 feet (760 m)

Alvin located the bomb again on 2 April, this time at a depth of 2,900 feet (880 m).[18] On 7 April, an unmanned torpedo recovery vehicle, CURV-I, became entangled in the weapon's parachute while attempting to attach a line to it. A decision was made to raise CURV and the weapon together to a depth of 100 feet (30 m), where divers attached cables to both. The bomb was brought to the surface by USS Petrel. The USS Cascade was diverted from its Naples destination, stayed on scene until recovery, then took the bomb back to the United States.[citation needed]

Once the bomb was located, Simó Orts appeared at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York with his lawyer, Herbert Brownell, formerly Attorney General of the United States under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, claiming salvage rights on the recovered thermonuclear bomb. According to Craven:[28]

> It is customary maritime law that the person who identifies the location of a ship to be salved has the right to a salvage award if that identification leads to a successful recovery. The amount is nominal, usually 1 or 2 percent, sometimes a bit more, of the intrinsic value to the owner of the thing salved. But the thing salved off Palomares was a thermonuclear bomb, the same bomb valued by no less an authority than the Secretary of Defense at $2 billion—each percent of which is, of course, $20 million.

The Air Force settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.[5] In later years, Simó Orts was heard to complain that the Americans had promised him financial compensation but had not kept their promise.[20]

## Contamination

[edit]

At 10:40 UTC, the accident was reported at the Command Post of the Sixteenth Air Force, and was confirmed at 11:22. The commander of the U.S. Air Force at Torrejón Air Base, Spain, Major General Delmar E. Wilson, immediately traveled to the scene of the accident with a Disaster Control Team. Further Air Force personnel were dispatched later the same day, including nuclear experts from U.S. government laboratories.[29]

The first weapon to be discovered was found nearly intact. However, the conventional explosives from the other two bombs that fell on land detonated without setting off a nuclear explosion (akin to a dirty bomb explosion). This ignited the pyrophoric plutonium, producing a cloud that was dispersed by a 30-knot (56 km/h; 35 mph) wind. A total of 2.6 square kilometres (1.0 sq mi) was contaminated with radioactive material. This included residential areas, farmland (especially tomato farms) and woods.[30]

To defuse public alarm over contamination, on 8 March[31] Spanish minister for information and tourism Manuel Fraga Iribarne and United States ambassador Angier Biddle Duke swam on nearby beaches in front of the press.[32] First the ambassador and some companions swam at Mojácar[31] — a resort 15 km (9 mi) away — and then Duke and Fraga swam at the Quitapellejos beach in Palomares.[33]

Despite the cost and the number of personnel involved in the cleanup, traces of contamination remained forty years later. Snails were observed with unusual levels of radioactivity.[34] Additional tracts of land were also appropriated for testing and further cleanup. However, no indication of health issues has been discovered among the local population in Palomares.[32]

## Political consequences

[edit]

President Lyndon B. Johnson was first apprised of the situation during his morning briefing on the day of the accident. He was told that the 16th Nuclear Disaster Team had been sent to investigate, per the standard procedures for this type of accident. News stories on the crash began appearing the following day, and it was on the front page of both the New York Times and Washington Post on 20 January. Reporters sent to the accident scene covered angry demonstrations by local residents. On 4 February, an underground Communist organization initiated a protest by 600 people in front of the U.S. Embassy in Spain.[31] The Duchess of Medina Sidonia, Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo (known as the "Red Duchess" for her socialist activism), eventually received a 13-month prison sentence for leading an illegal protest.[35]

Four days after the accident, the Spanish government under Franco's dictatorship stated that "the Palomares incident was evidence of the dangers created by NATO's use of the Gibraltar airstrip", announcing that NATO aircraft would no longer be permitted to fly over Spanish territory to or from Gibraltar.[36] On 25 January, as a diplomatic concession, the U.S. announced that it would no longer fly over Spain with nuclear weapons, and on 29 January the Spanish government formally banned U.S. flights over its territory that carried such weapons. This caused other nations hosting U.S. forces to review their policies, with Philippine Foreign Secretary Narciso Ramos calling for a new treaty to restrict the operation of U.S. military aircraft in Filipino airspace.[31]

Palomares, and the Thule Air Base B-52 crash involving nuclear weapons two years later in Greenland, made Operation Chrome Dome politically untenable, leading the U.S. Department of Defense to announce that it would be "re-examining the military need" for continuing the program.[37]

As of 2024,[update] there is no museum or monument dedicated to the accident in the town of Palomares, which is noted only by a short street there named "17 January 1966".[32]

## Cleanup

[edit]

During cleanup, soil with radioactive contamination levels above 1.2 MBq/m2 was placed in 250-litre (66 U.S. gallon) drums and shipped to the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina for burial. A total of 2.2 hectares (5.4 acres) was decontaminated this way, producing 6,000 barrels. 17 hectares (42 acres) of land with lower levels of contamination were mixed to a depth of 30 centimetres (12 in) by harrowing and plowing. On rocky slopes with contamination above 120 kBq/m2, the soil was removed with hand tools and shipped to the U.S. in barrels.[30]

Barrels of contaminated soil being prepared for removal to the United States for processing

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.[38]

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.[34] The discovery occurred during an investigation being carried out by Spain's energy research agency CIEMAT and the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. and Spain agreed to share the cost of the initial investigation.

In April 2008, CIEMAT announced they had found two trenches, totaling 2,000 cubic metres (71,000 cu ft), where the U.S. Army stored contaminated earth during the 1966 operations. The American government agreed in 2004 to pay for the decontamination of the grounds, and the cost of the removal and transportation of the contaminated earth has been estimated at $2 million. The trenches were found near the cemetery, where one of the nuclear devices was retrieved in 1966, and they were probably dug at the last moment by American troops before leaving Palomares. CIEMAT said that they expected to find remains of plutonium and americium once an exhaustive analysis of the earth had been carried out.[39] [40] In a conversation in December 2009, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos told the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he feared Spanish public opinion might turn against the U.S. once results of the nuclear contamination study were revealed.[41]

In August 2010, a Spanish government source revealed that the U.S. had stopped the annual payments it has made to Spain, as the bilateral agreement in force since the accident had expired the previous year.[42]

On 19 October 2015, Spain and the United States signed an agreement to further discuss the cleanup and removal of contaminated land. Under a statement of intent signed by Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the two countries were to negotiate a binding agreement to further restore and clear up the Palomares site and arrange for the disposal of the contaminated soil at an appropriate site in the U.S.[43]

## Aftermath

[edit]

The casings of two B28 nuclear bombs involved in the Palomares incident are on display at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

While serving on the salvage ship USS Hoist during recovery operations, Navy diver Carl Brashear had his leg crushed in a deck accident and lost the lower part of his left leg. His story was the inspiration for the 2000 film Men of Honor.[44]

In March 2009, Time magazine identified the Palomares accident as one of the world's "worst nuclear disasters".[45]

Marked long-term occurrences of cancer and other health defects occurred among the surviving USAF personnel directed to the accident site in the days following the crash to clean up the contamination. Most of the afflicted personnel have had difficulty securing any type of compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs because of the secretive nature of the cleanup operation and the Air Force's refusal to acknowledge that adequate safety measures to protect first responders may not have been taken.[46]

In June 2016, The New York Times published an article on the 50th anniversary lingering legacy of the Palomares accident.[47]

In December 2017, one of the airmen involved in the clean-up, Victor Skaar, sued the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Skaar was appealing the Department's refusal of medical treatment for leukopenia that Skaar believes was caused by his exposure at Palomares.[48] He also petitioned for the Court to certify a class of veterans "who were present at the 1966 cleanup of plutonium dust at Palomares, Spain[,] and whose application for service-connected disability compensation based on exposure to ionizing radiation [VA] has denied or will deny."[49] The certification of this class was granted by the Court in December 2019. This is one of the first cases ever granted class-action status by the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.[50]

The empty casings of two of the bombs involved in this incident are now on display in the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[9]

## In popular culture

[edit]

The incident inspired the light-hearted 1966 film Finders Keepers, starring Cliff Richard and backed by his band The Shadows.[citation needed]

In November 1966, the plot of an episode of the espionage-themed American television series I Spy entitled "One of Our Bombs is Missing" was devoted to the search for an American Air Force plane carrying an atomic weapon which crashed over a remote Italian village.[citation needed]

This incident was given the movie treatment in a semi-serious 1967 film, The Day the Fish Came Out, which covers the story of a plane crash alongside a Greek (not Spanish) Island and the surreptitious attempts by plain-clothes U.S. Navy personnel to find the missing bombs.[citation needed]

It is also referenced in Terence Young's 1969 drama The Christmas Tree, in which William Holden plays a rich industrialist, who, while traveling in Corsica with his son, learns the boy has been exposed to radiation from the explosion of a plane carrying a nuclear device; on the phone with a senior French official, he references the Palomares incident.[citation needed]

The story was told in comic format as "Paco della Bomba" by Mino Milani on the Italian teenage-oriented magazine Corriere dei Ragazzi, on 12 January 1973.[51]

In Episode 12 of the fourth season of Archer, the main protagonists race against time to recover a lost hydrogen bomb near the Bermuda Triangle, with references being made to how the U.S. Air Force settled for "at least $20 million" when they lost a previous hydrogen bomb in the late 1960s.

In 2000, the U.S. film Men of Honor focused on the life of the first black American master diver, Carl Brashear, in the U.S. Navy. The film begins and ends with the Palomares bomb recovery by U.S. Navy personnel.[52]

In April 2015, the Palomares incident was mentioned in the Danish film The Idealist, a film about a similar incident, the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash.

In August 2015, the incident was the subject of a two-minute animated film by Richard Neale that was a finalist in the BBC's WellDoneU competition for amateur filmmakers.[53]

In 2021, Spanish cable TV provider Movistar+ produced a four-part documentary series, Palomares: Dias de playa y plutonio.[54]

## See also

[edit]

* Broken Arrow
* List of military nuclear accidents
* RAF Lakenheath nuclear near-disasters – included another US military incident involving a Mark 28 nuclear bomb

## References

[edit]

Notes

1. ^ a b c d e Hayes, Ron (17 January 2007). "H-bomb incident crippled pilot's career". Palm Beach Post. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
2. ^ S V Asselin (August 1966). SC-DR-66-397 B-51/KC-135 Collision near Palomares, Spain (U) (Report). Sandia National Labs.
3. ^ Maydew, Randall C. (1997). America's Lost H-Bomb: Palomares, Spain, 1966. Sunflower University Press. ISBN 978-0-89745-214-4.
4. ^ a b A Summary of Accidents and Significant Incidents Involving US Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Weapon Systems (U) (Report). Sandia National Labs. 1990.
5. ^ a b c d Long, Tony (17 January 2008). "Jan. 17, 1966: H-Bombs Rain Down on a Spanish Fishing Village". WIRED. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2008.
6. ^ Long, Tony. "Jan. 17, 1966: H-Bombs Rain Down on a Spanish Fishing Village". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
7. ^ Rothman, Lily (17 March 2016). "How the U.S. Lost—and Found—a Thermonuclear Weapon". TIME. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
8. ^ SER, Cadena (7 April 2025). "La BBC recuerda cuando Estados Unidos soltó por accidente cuatro bombas nucleares sobre España en 1966". Cadena SER (in European Spanish). Retrieved 6 May 2025.
9. ^ a b c Moran, Barbara (Fall 2004). "The Day They Lost the H-bomb – and How They Got It Back". Invention & Technology. Archived from the original on 6 May 2006. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
10. ^ a b c Megara, John. "Dropping Nuclear Bombs on Spain, The Palomares Accident of 1966 and the U.S. Airborne Alert" (PDF). Florida State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
11. ^ a b c Lewis, Flora (1967). One of Our H-Bombs is Missing. McGraw-Hill. OCLC 784834.
12. ^ Defense Nuclear Agency Kirtland AFB NM Technology and Analysis Directorate (15 January 1975). "Palomares Summary Report". Defense Technical Information Center. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
13. ^ Staff (2003). "Broken Arrow". National Atomic Museum. Archived from the original on 16 February 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
14. ^ History of the Mk 28 Weapon (Report). Sandia National Laboratories. August 1968. p. 36\. Archived from the original on 7 July 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
15. ^ History of the Mk 28 Weapon, pp. 37–38.
16. ^ History of the Mk 28 Weapon, p. 36.
17. ^ Sublette, Carey (12 June 2020). "Complete List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons". Nuclear weapon archive. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
18. ^ a b USAF Nuclear Safety, 1966.
19. ^ a b c Moody, D. H. "40th Anniversary of Palomares" (PDF). Faceplate. Naval Sea Systems Command. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2009.
20. ^ a b "Necrológico: Francisco Simó, 'Paco el de la bomba' de Palomares" [Obituary: Francisco Simó]. El País (in Spanish). 8 September 2003. Archived from the original on 1 September 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
21. ^ Melson, June 1967, pp. 26–39.
22. ^ Moran, Barbara (2009). The Day We Lost the H-Bomb: Cold War, Hot Nukes, and the Worst Nuclear Weapons Disaster in History. Random House, Inc. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-89141-904-4.
23. ^ "USS Charles R. Ware DD-865". Danny Dannenfeldt, BM3. 2006. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
24. ^ NAVPERS-719 DECK LOG – REMARKS SHEET USS Forrestal CVA-59 dated Tuesday, 15 March 1966, 08–12 watch and 12–16 watch, and obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration in July 2015.
25. ^ a b Melson, June 1967, p. 37.
26. ^ Melson, June 1967, pp. 38–39.
27. ^ "World News: US Navy Award for Decca". Flight International. Flightglobal/Archive. 11 May 1967. p. 728\. Archived from the original on 25 August 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
28. ^ Craven, John Piña (2001). The Silent War. Simon and Schuster. pp. 174–175. ISBN 978-0-684-87213-1.
29. ^ Oskins, James C.; Maggelet, Michael H. (2008). Broken Arrow – The Declassified History of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accidents. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-4357-0361-2.
30. ^ a b Eisenbud, Merril; Gesell, Thomas F. (1997). Environmental radioactivity: from natural, industrial and military sources. Academic Press. p. 429. ISBN 0-12-235154-1.
31. ^ a b c d Stiles, David (2006). "A Fusion Bomb over Andalucia: U.S. Information Policy and the 1966 Palomares Incident" (PDF). Journal of Cold War Studies. 8 (1): 49–67\. doi:10.1162/152039706775212067. S2CID 57571313. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 October 2008. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
32. ^ a b c Geitner, Paul (11 September 2008). "Spanish Town Struggles to Forget Its Moment on the Brink of a Nuclear Cataclysm". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 January 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
33. ^ Un baño y un Meyba que pasaron a la historia Archived 13 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine El Almería, 17 January 2012 (in Spanish)
34. ^ a b Bejarano, José (19 November 2004). La maldición de Palomares (in Spanish). La Vanguardia. Archived from the original on 5 July 2007. Retrieved 31 May 2007.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
35. ^ "The Duchess of Medina Sidonia: Aristocrat whose radicalism earned her the title 'Red Duchess'". The Independent. 17 March 2008. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
36. ^ "Spain bans overflying by NATO". The Times. London. 22 January 1966. col A, p. 8.
37. ^ Finney, John W. (28 February 1968). "U.S. Reviews Need for H-Bomb Alert". New York Times. p. 1.
38. ^ Méndez, Rafael (10 December 2010). "Palomares: 50.000 metros contaminados con plutonio" Archived 13 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine. EL Pais. El Ciemat comenzó a realizar un detallado estudio tridimensional de la contaminación: expropió los terrenos de las bombas, tomó 325.000 muestras con un georradar en 6,6 millones de metros cuadrados de suelo y analizó 1.848 muestras de tierra. En un informe preliminar, de junio de 2007, el Ciemat admitió que había contaminación fuera de las zonas valladas y expropiadas y el CSN replicó que la contaminación detectada se podría superar la dosis de radiación admisible para el público, lo que obligó a "imponer restricciones totales o parciales" al uso del suelo.
39. ^ Méndez, Rafael (10 April 2008). "España halla las zanjas radiactivas que EE UU ocultó en Palomares" (in Spanish). El País. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
40. ^ h.b. (10 April 2008). "Spain finds trenches of radioactive earth buried at Palomares". typicallyspanish.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2008. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
41. ^ Clinton, Hillary (18 December 2009). "Secretary Clinton's December 14, 2009 Conversation With Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos". US Department of State. Retrieved 18 December 2010.[permanent dead link]
42. ^ "US ends payments to Spain for 1966 bomb accident". AFP. 23 August 2010. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
43. ^ "Spain, US sign new accord to study further cleanup work after 1966 nuclear accident". US News. AP. 19 October 2015. Archived from the original on 20 October 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
44. ^ Dorsey, Jack; Washington, Jim (26 July 2006). "Pioneering Navy diver Carl Brashear dies in Portsmouth". The Virginian-Pilot. Archived from the original on 5 February 2008. Retrieved 19 February 2008.
45. ^ "The Worst Nuclear Disasters". Time. 2016. Archived from the original on 30 March 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
46. ^ Philipps, Dave (19 June 2016). "Decades Later, Sickness Among Airmen After a Hydrogen Bomb Accident". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 June 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
47. ^ Minder, Raphael (20 June 2016). "Even Without Detonation, 4 Hydrogen Bombs From '66 Scar Spanish Village". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
48. ^ The Wall Street Journal, 2–3 January 2021, p. A3
49. ^ "Skaar, No. 17-2574 (Vet. App. 2019)". Justia Law. United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Retrieved 12 May 2025.
50. ^ Philipps, Dave (11 February 2020). "For Many Who Cleaned Up a Nuclear Mess, a Key Ruling Comes Too Late". New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
51. ^ "Paco della bomba". 11 February 2024.
52. ^ Jones, Jae (5 January 2016). "Carl Maxie Brashear: First African American U.S. Navy Master Diver". Black Then. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
53. ^ "Well Done U". BBC. 16 October 2015. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
54. ^ "Palomares: Dias de playa y plutonio". Movistar+. Archived from the original on 24 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2022.

Bibliography

* "Broken Arrow – Palomares, Spain" (PDF). USAF Nuclear Safety. 52. Directorate of Nuclear Safety, United States Air Force. September–October 1966. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 March 2009. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
* Lewis, Flora (1987). One of Our H-Bombs is Missing. Bantam. ISBN 978-0-553-26483-8.
* Maggelet, Michael H.; Oskins, James C. (2008). Broken Arrow- The Declassified History of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accidents. Bantam. ISBN 978-1-4357-0361-2.
* Melson, Lewis B. CAPT USN (June 1967). Contact 261. United States Naval Institute Proceedings.
* "Broken Arrows: The Palomares and Thule Accidents". Brookings Institution. 1998. Archived from the original on 9 November 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
* Moran, Barabara M, "The Day we lost the H-Bomb" [2] ISBN 978-0891419044

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1966 Palomares B-52 crash.

* John Howard, "Palomares Bajo", Southern Spaces, 23 August 2011.
* n-tv: Atomkatastrophe von 1966 – USA und Spanien entseuchen.
* Oral history[usurped] of Willard Franklyn Searle recounting the recovery project.

* v
* t
* e

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1966 (1966)

Jan 14

Avianca Flight 03

Jan 17

Palomares incident

Jan 24

Air India Flight 101

Jan 28

Lufthansa Flight 005

Feb 2

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 17

Feb 4

All Nippon Airways Flight 60

Feb 16

Aeroflot Flight 302

Feb 17

Aeroflot Flight 65

Feb 28

NASA T-38 crash

Mar 4

Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402

Mar 5

BOAC Flight 911

Mar 18

United Arab Airlines Flight 749

Apr 22

American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D

Apr 23

Aeroflot Flight 2723

Apr 27

LANSA Flight 501

Jun 3

Felthorpe Trident crash

Jun 29

Philippine Air Lines Flight 785

Jul 4

Air New Zealand DC-8 crash

Jul 22

Holden's Lightning flight

Aug 6

Braniff Flight 250

Aug 29

Japan Air Lines Convair 880 crash

Sep 1

Britannia Airways Flight 105

Sep 22

Ansett-ANA Flight 149

Sep 28

Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 648 hijacking

Oct 1

West Coast Airlines Flight 956

Nov 13

All Nippon Airways Flight 533

Nov 15

Pan Am Flight 708

Nov 24

TABSO Flight 101

Dec 24

Flying Tiger Line Canadair CL-44 crash

1965   ◄    ►   1967

* v
* t
* e

Aviation accidents and incidents in Spain

Before 1970|

* Hubert Le Blon (April 1910)
* Aviaco Flight 111 (May 1957)
* Aviaco SNCASE Languedoc crash (December 1958)
* Transair Douglas Dakota accident (August 1959)
* Mt. Alcazaba UTA Douglas DC-6 crash (October 1964)
* Iberia Flight 401 (May 1965)
* 1966 Palomares incident (January 1966)

1970s|

* Dan-Air Flight 1903 (July 1970)
* Iberia Flight 602 (January 1972)
* Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 130 (September 1972)
* Tenerife Spantax Convair CV-990 crash (December 1972)
* Aviaco Flight 118 (August 1973)
* Imperial Iranian Air Force Flight 48 (May 1976)
* Tenerife airport disaster (March 1977)

1980s|

* Dan-Air Flight 1008 (April 1980)
* Spantax Flight 995 (September 1982)
* Avianca Flight 011 (November 1983)
* Madrid Airport runway collision (December 1983)
* Iberia Flight 610 (February 1985)

1990s|

* Britannia Airways Flight 226A (September 1999)

2000s|

* Iberia Flight 1456 (February 2001)
* Binter Mediterráneo Flight 8261 (August 2001)
* Flightline Flight 101 (October 2001)
* Spanair Flight 5022 (August 2008)

2010s|

* 2015 Los Llanos Air Base crash (January 2015)
* Seville Airbus A400M crash (May 2015)

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template