During the Cold War, the Strategic Air Command kept nuclear-armed B-52s flying airborne alert missions close to the Soviet bloc, refuelling them in midair on the way. On January 17, 1966, over southeastern Spain, a B-52G struck its KC-135 tanker at 31,000 feet. All four tanker crewmen and three of the bomber's seven crew were killed. Two of the bombs that landed near the village of Palomares had their conventional explosives go off on impact, spreading plutonium over about two square kilometres. The fourth bomb was lost at sea.
Neither weapon that burst open produced a nuclear explosion. The conventional charges scattered plutonium over farmland near the fishing village of Palomares in Almería, and American personnel later dug up and shipped away large amounts of contaminated soil. Some of the ground stayed contaminated for decades, and the clean-up is still a diplomatic issue between Spain and the United States.
Finding the fourth bomb took two and a half months. A local fisherman, Francisco Simó Orts, had watched a parachute come down into the sea, and his account helped the U.S. Navy narrow the search. The bomb was finally found at a depth of about 2,850 feet and raised intact onto the deck of USS Petrel. Along the coast, Simó Orts became known as "Paco de la bomba."
Palomares was among the most publicised of the Cold War "Broken Arrows," the military's term for accidents involving nuclear weapons. It exposed the risk of keeping hydrogen bombs in the air around the clock, and the Pentagon has admitted to more than three dozen such accidents.
Key people: Francisco Simó Orts