The two main benefits of airborne sampling-mobility and pinpoint retrieval of debris-kept the Sniffer in business. “If India and Pakistan hadn’t occurred, that aircraft would be retired and sitting in the desert outside Tucson, Arizona.” “At the 11th hour and 59th minute something happened,” O’Brien says. In rapid succession, India and Pakistan set off nuclear explosions in underground test chambers. The equation suddenly changed over two weeks in May 1998. In addition to waiting for enhanced grab-and-go airborne sampling equipment, policymakers put their money on pending advances in remote sensing technology, hoping that the Phoenix aircraft, sometimes called “Sniffers,” would enjoy a quiet retirement-an approach that appeared to be the best option given a tight budget. “The decision was made not to fund the maintenance…. “By 1997, the debate was: Should we continue to fund this aircraft, which needed major maintenance, or not fund it and take the risk that it wouldn’t be needed?” says David O’Brien, AFTAC chief scientist. There hasn’t been an above-ground test since 1980, when China detonated two bombs in the atmosphere. Atomic Energy Detection System, a global network of nuclear blast detectors that includes, in addition to the aircraft, seismometers, undersea listening devices, and satellite-mounted optical sensors calibrated to detect the flash of an above-ground atomic explosion. Escalating maintenance and repair costs for the aging aircraft (today, two survivors of a sampling fleet that in its heyday numbered more than six dozen) had convinced the Phoenix program’s managers at the Air Force Technical Applications Center just south of Cocoa Beach, Florida, to ground the 135s while the center developed a modular system of sensors that could be plugged in and flown on any cargo-type aircraft. In early May 1998, the WC-135s were only days away from administrative death. It’s a mission that takes Riley all over the world to retrieve evidence from the area of a nuclear explosion. He navigates one of the last remaining WC-135s equipped for Constant Phoenix, the nation’s only airborne program to detect nuclear fallout. Long missions are the standard for Riley and his many crewmates. You got a stove, you use it, Riley says-even if you’re 30,000 feet up and especially when you’ve been flying 15 hours straight. More frequently, there are the aromas of fresh-baked pizza and the unmistakable scents of TV dinners, baking slow and steady, the old-fashioned way. Read the full article here.Navigator Jimmie Riley fondly remembers a mission when he could smell popcorn all the way to the cockpit. The incident comes just weeks after a freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.Īccording to Father Kearns, people, including homeless people and students from the nearby Father Judge Catholic High School, would pass over the tracks to get to St. The area where the device was found posed a potential threat to the Philadelphia freight line. Police, he said, also told him the bomb “wasn’t able to be exploded.” The bomb was found another 20 feet from my fence.” It’s a big cemetery, and I have fencing around it. I know the cops, and I spoke to them directly. “It was behind us, not on our property, (but) on the other side of the railroad tracks, on Conrail’s property. “I don’t think it was in connection to us,” he continued. They were very quiet when they came in to pick it up and take it away.” “I was surprised,” Father Kearns told OSV News. Dominic, does not believe that the bomb was a direct threat to his church. The Philadelphia Police Bomb Squad later arrived at the scene to remove the pipe bomb.Īs reported by The Detroit Catholic, Father Edward T. Police then responded to the scene and shut down the surrounding streets. Pennsylvania.Īccording to FOX 29, a passerby initially found the pipe bomb – a PVC pipe with capped ends and black powder on it – behind St. On Sunday afternoon, Philadelphia police discovered an 18-inch pipe bomb behind a Catholic church in Holmesburg. A number of people including students and homeless people cross the tracks in order to go to St. The location where the bomb was found created a potential danger to a freight line in Philadelphia. Kearns, that he does not think that the bomb was placed near the church as a direct threat to it. It has been reported by the church’s priest, Father Edward T. The bomb was later safely removed by the Philadelphia Police Bomb Squad. and soon the surrounding streets were shut down by the police. The pipe bomb was first discovered by a passerby around 2 p.m. An 18-inch pipe bomb was discovered by the Philadelphia police on February 19 behind Pennsylvania’s St.
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