page_title: Minimum interval takeoff
section_title: Incidents
hierarchical_section_title: Minimum interval takeoff / Incidents
caption_attribution_description: English: A B-52H Stratofortress starts its engines during a Minimum Interval Takeoff on Barksdale Air Force Base, La., Aug. 14, 2014. Common place during the Cold War, a MITO challenges crews to get multiple aircraft airborne as quickly as possible in response to an alert call. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Sean Martin)
context_page_description: A minimum interval takeoff is a technique of the United States Air Force for scrambling all available bomber and tanker aircraft at twelve- and fifteen-second intervals, respectively. Before takeoff, the aircraft perform an elephant walk to the runway. It is designed to maximize the number of aircraft launched in the least amount of time possible before the base suffers a nuclear strike, which would obliterate all remaining aircraft.
  Although the practice is aimed to efficiently send aircraft off as quickly as possible, it does not come without risks. Sending aircraft into the slipstream of another aircraft at such close intervals could cause the plane to jump up and down, possibly causing it to flip over. More than once, aircraft have crashed on takeoff after encountering such turbulence.
context_section_description: One B-52 was involved in a crash during a MITO when the aircraft stalled.
  On the morning of December 16, 1982, A B-52G Stratofortress of the 328th Bombardment Squadron, 93rd Bombardment Wing, at Castle Air Force Base crashed while attempting a MITO, killing all nine crewmembers on board. It had just taken off from Mather Air Force Base when they encountered trouble. The aircraft, which was carrying 290,000 pounds of fuel, crashed about a mile and a half from Mather and blew up in a ball of fire around 250 feet in diameter. The resulting crash left a 400-yard path of burning debris, killed three horses, and left four people needing treatment for smoke inhalation. The cause was determined to have been the result of the jet trying to avoid the jet blast of the lead plane, showing the inherent risk behind launching aircraft so close together.
  A "Broken Arrow" incident originated from a minimum interval takeoff incident on December 8, 1964. During a normal MITO at Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana, a Convair B-58 Hustler, loaded with six nuclear weapons, suffered a landing gear failure. This caused the pilot to lose control, which also caused a rupture of the fuel cell holding JP-4 fuel, causing an immediate fire under the aircraft. The pilot and defensive systems operator survived the fire and abandoned the aircraft; the navigator ejected, but was killed. The resulting fire consumed the aircraft and some nuclear weapons, causing contamination in the immediate vicinity.
  On 4 January 1961, during a minimum interval takeoff from Pease AFB, New Hampshire, a Boeing B-47E Stratojet, 53-4244, of the 100th Bomb Wing, number 2 in a three-ship cell, lost control, crashed into trees, and burned. The aircraft commander, Capt. Thomas C. Weller, co-pilot 1st Lt. Ronald Chapo, navigator 1st Lt. J. A. Wether, and crew chief S/Sgt. Stephen J. Merva were killed.
caption: A B-52H Stratofortress starts its engines during a minimum interval takeoff at Barksdale Air Force Base in 2014
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