Oh ... it's a 'safety day.'
Guess that explains it all.
www.airforcetimes.com...
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 10, 2007 17:38:42 EDT
On Sept. 14, flight lines will be very quiet at Air
Combat Command bases.
The entire command - about 100,000 active-duty airmen
- is standing down training flights and many other
operations as part of a command-wide safety day.
Command boss Gen. Ronald Keys ordered the Sept. 14
safety standdown in the wake of the Aug. 30 nuclear
incident at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., in which six
cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were
loaded onto a B-52H and then flown to Barksdale Air
Force Base, La., without anyone on the ground or
bomber realizing the nuclear weapons were on the
plane. It was not until the B-52H was parked at
Barksdale that ground crews discovered the cruise
missiles were carrying real warheads.
Command spokesman Maj. Tom Crosson said wing
commanders would determine how their units review
operations and safety procedures and checklists.
Just how serious Keys takes the lapse of regulations
at Minot is reflected in the fact that the safety
stand-down is the first commandwide safety day in
recent memory. In the past, the command has singled
out specific types of aircraft for safety days and in
1997 the Department of Defense held a departmentwide
safety review day.