Palomares

A B-52 had, uh, had crashed off Spain.

Is this the Palomares incident?

Uh, yeah.

1966, yeah.

He had a track record, right?

Yes, he had previously orchestrated the successful recovery of a lost hydrogen bomb that had fallen into the ocean off the coast of Palomares, Spain in 1966.

And he didn't use standard search grids.

He used something called Bayesian search theory.

Significantly, the entire incident was captured on live television, with the BBC even interrupting coverage of the World Snooker Championships to cover the unfolding crisis, and reporter Kate Adie catapulting herself to media fame by reporting unscripted from behind a car door for 45 minutes in one of the longest-ever live-to-air news flashes.

Palomares is a small Spanish fishing village in East Andalusia.

On the 17th of January 1966, it became the focus of global attention when a B-52 bomber of the US Air Force Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker while refueling 9,500 meters above the Mediterranean Sea.

The crash completely destroyed the tanker, killing all four crew on board.

Of much more concern to the world, though, was the B-52's cargo.

It was carrying four hydrogen bombs, probably of the MK-28 type.

One of the bombs fell into the Mediterranean, but the other three landed near Palomares.

The impact detonated the conventional explosives in two of them, and two square kilometers of land became contaminated with uranium and plutonium.