Air Force missile launch crew falls asleep

There are periodic, regularly scheduled code changes, and there was a crew of four on duty. One of the crew members was not in the room with the other three at the time they fell asleep, the Air Force said.

The investigation concluded that the codes had remained secured in their containers, which have combination locks that can be opened only by the crew. The containers remained with the crew at all times, and the facility is guarded by armed security forces.

'Violations do occur periodically'
Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan called the series of nuclear missteps involving Minot Air Force Base in his state, North Dakota, disappointing and unfortunate.

"This appears to me to be an incident in which codes were not compromised but some rules were broken, and those broken rules were reported," Dorgan said. "This does not appear to me to be equal to flying an airplane loaded with nuclear weapons halfway across the county; that was extraordinarily serious.

"I don't think this is an issue about the base. I think it's an issue about personnel," Dorgan said. "There have obviously been management and command problems at this base, and the Air Force has made some command changes to respond to it."

Col. Bruce Emig was ousted after the August flight of the B-52 bomber.

"The violation was reported and it required reporting, and the airmen did their duty to report it," Dorgan said, referring to the latest incident.

North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, who spoke with Air Force officials Thursday about the matter, said the Minot base is getting extra scrutiny because of its embarrassing mistakes.

"They told me procedural violations do occur periodically," he said.

But Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called the incident very troubling. "The new Air Force leadership, when confirmed, must take decisive and urgent steps to restore the culture of respect that our strategic weapons deserve and our national security demands," said Skelton.

Gen. Norton A. Schwartz has been nominated to be the next Air Force chief of staff and Michael Donley to be secretary. During their Senate confirmation hearing this week both men vowed to work to restore trust and confidence in the service.

The 91st missile wing has control of several facilities, including 150 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

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