page_title: 1966 Palomares B-52 crash
section_title: Accident
hierarchical_section_title: 1966 Palomares B-52 crash / Accident
caption_attribution_description: English: A boom operator of a KC-135 Stratotanker during an aerial refueling of a B-52 Stratofortress in Afghanistan. Original description: Airman 1st Class Ben Davis refuels a B-52 Stratofortress bomber from a KC-135 Stratotanker, Monday, March 13, 2006, during a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The B-52 provides close air support for ground troops in Afghanistan. Davis is a boom operator assigned to the 28th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Douglas Nicodemus)
context_page_description: The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash, or the Palomares incident, occurred on 17 January 1966, when a B-52G bomber of the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refueling at 31,000 feet over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard.
  Of the four Mk28-type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried, three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares in the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora, Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impact with the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 0.77-square-mile area by plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a ​2 ¹⁄₂-month-long search.
context_section_description: The B-52G began its mission from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, carrying four type B28RI hydrogen 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.
  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,
  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.
  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, which resulted in an explosion that was witnessed by a second B-52 about a mile away. All four men on the KC-135 and three of the seven men on the bomber were killed.
  Those killed in the tanker were boom operator Master sergeant Lloyd Potolicchio, pilot Major Emil J. Chapla, copilot 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. Montanus was seated on the lower deck of the main cockpit and was able to eject from the plane, but his parachute never opened. Glessner and Snyder were on the upper deck, near the point where the refueling boom struck the fuselage, and were not able to eject.
  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. 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 he survived the impact with the ground. The other three surviving crew members landed safely several miles out to sea.
  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 Orts. All three men who landed in the sea were taken to a hospital in Águilas.
caption: Boom operator's view of a B-52 from a KC-135 tanker
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Operation ENDURING FREEDOM - March 13, 2006 (USAF Photo by SSgt Douglas Nicodemus) -- An Air Force KC-135R Stratotanker refuels a B-52 Stratofortress on a mission in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.  The B-52  provides close air support for ground troops in Afganistan.  This mission was piloted by 1Lt Jason Knab (left side not in photo) and Captain Lucas Karnes.  The refueling operation was conducted by Boom Operator A1C Ben Davis.  The crew are members of the 28 EARS.", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D70", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2006:03:15 08:15:48", "Image Artist": "SSgt Douglas Nicodemus, 40AEG/EC", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "USAF", "Image ExifOffset": "784", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1422", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6494", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:03:13 01:29:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:03:13 01:29:45", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-4/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "12", "EXIF SubSecTime": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3008", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2000", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "18", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Soft", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}