U.S. explains errant flight of nukes

The U.S. Air Force said on Friday that the incident of mishandling nuclear
warheads in August was an "unacceptable mistake" of a sort that had never
happened before.

Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne made the first
explicit confirmation on the incident at a Pentagon press conference, saying
that the military would "make all appropriate changes to ensure this has a
minimal chance of ever happening again."

A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber. The U.S. Defense
Department official confirmed Wednesday that a B-52 bomber had been mistakenly
loaded with nuclear weapons and flown over American sky.
(AFP File Photo)

In the Aug. 29-30 incident, six nuclear warheads on
air-launched cruise missiles were improperly handled and procedures were not
followed when they were loaded on a B-52 bomber and flown from Minot Air Force
Base, in the northern U.S. state of North Dakota, to Barksdale Air Force Base,
in the southern state of Louisiana. The incident is considered as the worst
known violation of nuclear security rules in decades.

Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief
of staff for operations, said at the press conference that the incident was
resulted from "unprecedented string of procedural errors."

The airmen failed to conduct a required inspection of
the missiles before they were loaded aboard the B-52 bomber, which "was a
failure to follow procedures, procedures that have proven to be sound," Newton
said.

After landing at Barksdale, the B-52 sat on a runway
for hours with the missiles but the breach was unnoticed. After 36 hours the
missiles were finally secured in a proper way.

"There has been an erosion of adherence to
weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force
Base," Newton said.

The explanation for the incident was concluded after
a six-week Air Force investigation.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a press
conference on Thursday that he also asked for an outside inquiry to determine
whether the incident exposes a larger security problem on weapon transferring.

The Air Force has taken some remedy measures
including ordering a comprehensive review of procedures base by base and
relieving four military officers who were held accountable for the
incident.