On 17 January 1966, the US accidentally dropped four nuclear bombs on Spain. A B-52 bomber collided with its refuelling aircraft in mid-air and dropped its deadly payload on the small southern Spanish village of Palomares. The conventional explosive in one of the bombs detonated when it hit the ground, scattering plutonium around. But, luckily, there was no nuclear explosion. A recently released report from the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico reveals that "by good fortune" the bombs in question had just been modified after small-scale nuclear tests had uncovered a safety problem.
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