Sleeping Crew Held Codes for Nuclear Missiles at Minot Airbase

It was 9.30 in the evening. The crew of three air force members decided to rest a little and within 15 minutes they were fast asleep. They awoke several hours later.

The only problem was that the room in which they were snoozing was the missile alert facility at Minot air force base in North Dakota. Directly beneath them was the control centre containing the keys that can launch ballistic missiles, and in their care were boxes containing codes that allow the nuclear button to be pressed.

The incident is the latest in a series of foul-ups and poor ratings that is turning Minot into the Fawlty Towers of the air force. Last year pilots flew a B-52 bomber across America unaware that it was loaded with six air-launched nuclear missiles. Two months ago the Minot-based 5th Bomb Wing was given a routine inspection by Pentagon investigators and warded an "unacceptable" grade for its procedures in securing nuclear weapons.

The fresh embarrassment dates from July 12 when the three crew members of the 91st Missile Wing allowed themselves to nap while in possession of the classified launch codes. An investigation by their wing that involved officials from the National Security Agency and US Strategic Command found that there had been no threat to the security of the weapons.

The codes that they were guarding had recently been changed, as is periodically the case, and were therefore redundant. The men were also behind locked doors. But this will not lessen the sense of disarray in the force. Last month the defence secretary, Robert Gates, fired the leadership of the air force after a string of mishaps, the most serious of which was the inadvertent sale of fusing devices for nuclear missiles to Taiwan.