A U.S. Air Force vehicle overturned yesterday as it transported a 75,000-pound Minuteman 3 ballistic missile rocket booster to a launch facility near Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, CNN reported (see GSN, July 25).
The 66-foot rocket was moving down a gravel road and was accompanied by spotters and safety crews. The Air Force is looking into the cause of the incident, which posed no threat to the surrounding population, the service said in a statement.
The Air Force is treating the event as a "Class-A mishap," an incident costing at least $1 million in damages, 20th Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Roger Burg said (CNN, July 31).
The rocket was expected to remain in the ditch in which it fell until today, Burg told the Associated Press.
He said that such incidents have occurred three or four times over the last three decades (James MacPherson, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, July 31).
The accident followed an incident last month in which Air Force personnel were found sleeping while on duty at a ballistic missile launch facility near the Minot base. The Air Force's leadership was dismissed following the accidental transfer of nuclear-armed cruise missiles from the base last year (see GSN, July 15) and the March revelation that the service had mistakenly shipped electronic ICBM components to Taiwan in 2006 (see GSN, March 26; CNN).