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Crews unearthing wrecked bomber
Supersonic B-58 armed with 5 nuclear bombs crashed, burned at Grissom Air Force Base in '64.
http://starnews.com/news/articles/bomber1021.html
By David Rohn
Indianapolis Star
October 21, 2000

   PERU, Ind. -- A week of digging for a bomber that crashed almost 36 years ago with nuclear weapons aboard has unearthed a lot of parts -- but no radiation. The B-58 slid off an icy runway during takeoff on Dec. 8, 1964, at Grissom Air Force Base. Officials are excavating the site as part of an environmental cleanup needed to open about half of the former base for private development.   What's surprising is that pieces of the unearthed aircraft show little sign of charring, said Air Force Capt. Eugene Sheely, chief of environmental health physics.

But officials say they're sure they're digging up the right plane. The supersonic bomber was hit by the backdraft of a jet in front of it during
takeoff. It slid on ice, striking the concrete base of a runway light and catching fire. Capt. Manuel Cervantes, a navigator, was killed after he ejected from the plane. The pilot and weapons system operator climbed out and survived. According to Air Force records, four of the five nuclear bombs aboard the burning plane were recovered the next day and eventually taken to out-of-state disposal facilities. As crews attempted to remove the fifth, its casing caught fire. Still burning two days later, the bomb was taken by a front-end loader to a pit about 100 feet from the wreckage and buried in sand.

   Soon after the crash, tests on the plane, the five bombs and rescue workers showed no unusual radiation. But crews found radiation at the crash site. Sheely believes it was from depleted uranium used as ballast.

   "The type of radiation from depleted uranium doesn't go through the skin and is a type of radiation that is of no danger," he said. "I wouldn't mind having a chunk of depleted uranium on the table next to me while I slept at night." In mid-September, about 300 square feet of soil were removed to a depth of a foot at the crash site. The dirt was shipped to a landfill for radioactive waste in Texas.

   Now, radiation is no higher than the normal background levels in the environment, Sheely said. Parts of the aircraft were buried several hundred yards west of where it crashed. They are in an 8-foot-deep pit that measures about 50 feet by 50 feet.

   As KC 135-R tanker jets roar overhead, taking off from and landing at the nearby runway, the wrecked bomber is being unearthed in an area cordoned off by orange plastic fencing. When pieces are found, they are placed on a plastic sheet. Although none of the pieces is much bigger than a door, some are recognizable -- part of a smashed engine; a shattered, triple-layered windshield; a piece of engine covering; a tapered nose fuselage that helped the plane break the sound barrier; and two twin sets of wheels, plus a couple of single tires.

   Noting that there is an intact B-58 at a museum near the entrance to the base, Sheely pointed to the tires amid the debris and said, "Those tires actually look like they're in better shape than the ones on the plane in the museum." He said he was surprised to find so few charred pieces, because the fire burned at the wreckage site for more than 11 hours. But based on records, accounts of people who remember where the plane was buried, identification of retrieved parts and magnetic imaging, Sheely is convinced they are digging up the right plane.

   What they also are digging up -- unexpectedly -- are about a half-dozen 55-gallon drums containing a substance that smells like petroleum. It will be sent for testing to a lab at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, along with parts of the plane and soil samples.

   According to Marla Senaca, environmental coordinator for the Air Force Conversion Base at Grissom, $1.4 million has been budgeted for the excavation and cleanup.  She said $30 million has been spent on cleaning up the 2,200-acre base, which a congressional committee in 1991 placed on a list of military bases to be closed. In 1994, Grissom was "realigned," with the half of the property containing the airstrip and hangar becoming an Air Force reserve base. The other half, including housing and a golf course, is being turned over to the community for private development.

   About 200 acres were given to the state for a prison. Senaca expects the cleanup to be finished in about 2004. Much of the pollution, she said, stems from firefighter-training exercises.  For decades, airplane fuel was dumped on the ground, set afire and extinguished. Other contamination on the base, she said, includes two major underground fuel tanks and lead from casings at a firing range.

Contact David Rohn at (317) 444-6204 or via e-mail at david.rohn@starnews.com