Missing US Nuclear Bomber: 1956 Morocco-Bound Flight Vanishes Over Atlantic

The American plane, a Boeing B-47, took off that day from the McDill Air Force Base in Florida, headed for another U.S. air base called Benguell, located in Morocco. The aircraft was only 5 years old and was adapted for long distances. But to fly across the entire Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean and reach Morocco, it had to refuel with kerosene (in the air) twice: once over the Atlantic and the second time over the Mediterranean.

According to a document declassified by the Ministry of Defense, the first refueling went well. It was during the second refueling that the Boeing B-47 disappeared into the clouds at 14,000 feet. "Visibility was poor," the U.S. government later admitted in a report that is silent on the causes of the aircraft’s disappearance. Did it crash? Mystery. But to this day, the plane has never been found, nor have the crew members and the two nuclear bombs it was carrying.

In reality, the plane was carrying two plutonium canisters, considered the core of nuclear bombs. "There is no possibility of a nuclear explosion," explained the U.S. Department of Defense, which did not deem it necessary to continue the investigations to find this B-47 and the two nuclear bombs.