MINOT, N.D., Sept. 5 Five cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were mistakenly loaded onto a B-52 bomber at a North Dakota military base last month, sources said.
Three military officers, who asked for anonymity, alleged that five Advanced Cruise Missiles with nuclear warheads were accidentally transported from North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base to a Louisiana military facility, the Military Times said Wednesday.
The U.S. military had been transporting the missiles Aug. 30 to Barksdale Air Force Base, where they were to be decommissioned, the officers said.
The military sources said it was not until the armed missiles arrived at the Louisiana base that the error was noticed.
Although the nuclear warheads were apparently unaccounted for during a flight that lasted more than three hours, Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Ed Thomas said U.S. citizens were never in any real danger.
"Air Force standards are very exacting when it comes to munitions handling," he told the Military Times. "The weapons were always in our custody and there was never a danger to the American public."
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