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- 1Palomares 1966: The B-52 Crash That Dropped a Hydrogen Bomb Into the Mediterranean▼It Took 80 Days to Find It: A US Air Force B-52 Bomber Collided Into a Tanker and Lost a Hydrogen Bomb in the Mediterranean in 1966
In January 1966 a US Air Force B-52 bomber collided mid-air with a KC-135 tanker during refuelling over Spain, scattering its payload of hydrogen bombs near Palomares. Three bombs fell on land and one was lost at sea, taking roughly 80 days to locate and recover from the Mediterranean. The story is being recirculated as one of the most dramatic nuclear-weapons accidents of the Cold War.