U.S. Air Force Ends Search for Lost Nuke

The search for a nuclear bomb accidentally dropped off the Georgia coast by a U.S. bomber in 1958 has come up empty, the Air Force said Friday (see GSN, April 13).

The Air Force report also concluded that the 7,600-pound weapon could not detonate and that the search should be abandoned, the Associated Press reported.

“The best course of action in this matter is to not continue to search for it and to leave the property in place,” says the report by the Air Force Nuclear Weapons and Counterproliferation Agency.

“We still think it’s irretrievably lost. We don’t know where to look for it,” said Billy Mullins, an Air Force nuclear weapons adviser who led the search (Associated Press/USA Today, June 17).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.