Keith Willshaw wrote:

"Scott Ferrin" wrote in message
...

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 16:14:07 +0100, "Keith Willshaw"
wrote:



They *did* manage to find four MK28 bombs though, though I don't
recall if it was in the Atlantic or Med.



It was at Palomares Spain and 3 of the weapons came down on land.

The fourth came down just offshore, the location of the accident
was well known and it was in shallow coastal waters and the
USN deployed a large recovery force.

It still took take the best part of 3 MONTHS to find that
one weapon. A number of weapons have been lost
in mid ocean incidents involving B-36 and B-47 aircraft
and none were recovered.

Keith




I also remember in the late '70s when they lost an F-14 overboard from a
carrier. They were even more worried about the Phoenix getting into
Soviet hands (they didn't yet know that it would happen a couple of
years later with the downfall of the Shah). They had to find both the
F-14 and the Phoenix, which separated from the aircraft. Both were
found, but only after a massive search that used both surface-based
sonar (sidescan?) and the NR-1 and Alvin.