The U.S. military has relieved four Air Force officers for their roles in the mistaken flight of nuclear warheads across the country, a US TV reported on Friday.
Citing two unidentified U.S. military officials, CNN said that Col. Bruce Emig, commander of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was among the four who have been stripped of their responsibilities over the incident in August.
An Air Force convening authority will determine whether to bring charges or any other disciplinary action against any personnel, the military officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the Defense Department has not made an official announcement on the decision.
According to the CNN report, the investigation into the Aug. 29incident found that six nuclear warheads on air-launched cruise missiles were improperly handled and procedures were not followed when they were loaded on a B-52 bomber and flown from Minot Air Force Base, in the northern U.S. state of North Dakota, to Barksdale Air Force Base, in the southern state of Louisiana, which is considered as the worst known violation of nuclear security rules in decades.
The warheads should have been removed from the missiles before they were attached to the B-52, it added.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a press conference on Thursday that officials want to reduce the chances of another such incident "to the lowest level humanly possible." But it "would be silly" to promise it will not happen again.
Apart from a three-week investigation by the Air Force, Gates also asked for an outside inquiry to determine whether the incident exposes a larger security problem on weapon transferring.
White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino said Thursday that President George W. Bush "appreciates the fact that Secretary Gates (had moved quickly) to find out what went wrong, make sure it doesn't happen again, and hold people to account if anyone did something wrong."
Source:Xinhua
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