According to press reports, based on Pentagon briefings, a NORAD staffer caused the mistake by mistakenly loading a training/exercise tape into a computer, which simulated an "attack into the live warning system." This was a distortion because it was not a matter of a "wrong tape," but software simulating a Soviet missile attack then testing NORAD's 427M computers "was inexplicably transferred into the regular warning display" at the Command's headquarters. Indeed, NORAD's Commander-in-chief later acknowledged that the "precise mode of failure ? could not be replicated."
Eric Schlosser's 'Command & Control' is a fascinating and very readable look at nuclear accidents and almost-accidents. Recommended if you're interested in this area.
This is where I initially found the story of the tape mishap. Many more terrifying ones in there, especially the one about the B52 disintegrating and dropping a near armed nuclear warhead over North Carolina...
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 32.3 ms ] threadAccording to press reports, based on Pentagon briefings, a NORAD staffer caused the mistake by mistakenly loading a training/exercise tape into a computer, which simulated an "attack into the live warning system." This was a distortion because it was not a matter of a "wrong tape," but software simulating a Soviet missile attack then testing NORAD's 427M computers "was inexplicably transferred into the regular warning display" at the Command's headquarters. Indeed, NORAD's Commander-in-chief later acknowledged that the "precise mode of failure ? could not be replicated."
Fascinating, but frightening.
This is where I initially found the story of the tape mishap. Many more terrifying ones in there, especially the one about the B52 disintegrating and dropping a near armed nuclear warhead over North Carolina...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bom...