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Alvin Takes Flight

March 17, 2012

In February 1966, Alvin was loaded onto a transport plane at Otis Air Force Base in Falmouth, Mass., for a flight to Spain. On January 17 of that year, a B-52 bomber had collided with a tanker during mid-air refueling, resulting in the loss of four hydrogen bombs. Three of the bombs fell on land near the Spanish fishing village of Palomares, but the fourth fell in the Mediterranean Sea. On March 17, 1966, Alvin helped recover the missing bomb, intact, from 910 meters (2,990 feet) beneath the surface. (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)