The 1956 B-47 disappearance was a Cold War aviation incident in which a United States Air Force Boeing B-47 Stratojet vanished over the Mediterranean Sea on 10 March 1956 while en route from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to Ben Guerir Air Base in Morocco. The aircraft, carrying three crew members, failed to make contact with a KC-97 tanker during a scheduled aerial refuelling. No wreckage or remains were recovered, and the crew were later declared dead.
At the time of the disappearance, the bomber was transporting two sealed capsules containing nuclear pits, but was not carrying any complete nuclear weapons, making a nuclear detonation impossible. The accident is listed in U.S. Department of Defense summaries as a “Broken Arrow”[1][2]
The B-47 successfully completed the first of two scheduled aerial refueling over the Mediterranean. For the second refueling, the bomber descended through thick cloud to 14,000 feet (4,300m) approximately 90 miles (140km) southwest of Oran. Visibility was poor.[4] Upon entering the cloud layer, all radio contact with the accompanying KC-97 tanker abruptly ceased and the aircraft failed to arrive at the refueling point.[5] No further signals were received, and the bomber was declared missing.
The aircraft was transporting two sealed nuclear pits inside their protective containers. These components cannot produce a nuclear yield unless integrated into a complete weapon system, requiring high explosives, not present on the flight.[6]
Aircraft last known position was over/near the Mediterranean Sea, north of Marsa Ben M'Hidi (Port-Say), an Algerian coastal village near the Moroccan frontier. A French press report suggested an in-flight explosion northeast of Saïdia, although no evidence or debris was found. Weather conditions at the time included extensive cloud cover, which hampered visual search efforts.[7][8]
Despite widespread air and sea searches, no wreckage, bodies or capsule containers were ever recovered and the location of the aircraft’s disappearance could not be determined.
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