BBC reported last night on the mystery of the nuclear bomb that went missing in Thule Air Base, Greenland on 21 January 1968. The bomb remains there on the bay of Greenland to this day.

The mission of the Thule Air Base is to protect the United States “in support of missile warning and space surveillance and satellite command and control operations missions.” Greenland is a self-governing province of Denmark, but the US nuclear operation that served to protect the homeland from possible Soviet strikes during the 1960’s was kept secret from the Danes. The operation consisted of nuclear-armed B52 bombers continuously circling Thule; so that it could strike back at the Soviet Union should they launch an attack.

However, on 21 January 1968, one mission “failed” when the cockpit of one of the B52s combusted. After calling “Mayday”, the pilots ejected themselves from the plane and let the vehicle crash on the ice a few miles from the base. The explosives surrounding the four nuclear weapons on-board the B52 had detonated but without setting off the nuclear devices, which had not been armed by the crew.

BBC obtained declassified documents (part of which remain classified and the Pentagon has declined to comment on) under the US Freedom of Information Act, and revealed “a much darker story”: it told of investigators realizing that only three out of the four missiles could be accounted for, having pieced together the debris from the accident.

Officials were particularly concerned at the time as the bomb “contained uranium and plutonium,” and “the abandoned weapons parts were highly sensitive because of the way in which the design, shape and amount of uranium revealed classified elements of nuclear warhead design”.

Thus, US national security was threatened, as there was a possibility that the bomb ends up in the hands of the enemy. By April, the US sent out a submarine to Thule to look for the misplaced bomb with the serial code 78252 (without Danish permission). Scouring was not successful, however, as the ice began to freeze over and due to technical difficulties.

The search has since then been abandoned and the incident remained highly confidential and “NOFORN” (Not to be disclosed to any foreign country). The US rationalized that the sensitive material was unattainable and that the radioactive material will dissolve into the ocean over time, thus, concluding that the situation was nonthreatening.

That being said, the environmental and health effects has been overlooked and the “what-ifs” still haunt many residents of the area today—not to mention the reminder of the fragility of peace in a world that continues to rely on MAD theory for national security.