- A spy satellite parked over Alberta in recent months
would have spotted a Mark-IV atomic bomb -- or at least a replica of the
one lost off B.C.'s north coast in 1952 -- in an Edmonton driveway before
being shunted off to an old aircraft hangar.
That's the set where Edmonton film maker Michael Jorgensen is shooting
what promises to be the definitive account of the half-century-old "Broken
Arrow" incident.
"I think we have more weapons of mass destruction than Saddam did,"
jokes Jorgensen, who visited the northwest this month.
His documentary "Lost Nuke" will bring to the Discovery Channel
the case of the U.S. Air Force B-36 bomber that went down in the Kispiox
mountains northeast of Terrace after its crew jettisoned the plane's A-bomb
and bailed out over the Pacific.
The real bomb, of course, lies in pieces at the bottom of the Pacific,
off Princess Royal Island.
- But Jorgensen's 11-foot-long replica is just one of the
props his crew has assembled to portray the history of the incident and
explore the theories behind what really happened.
"We're basically recreating that whole mission, with actors and computer-generated
effects," Jorgensen said.
Wearing a jacket bestudded with mission patches and aviation memorabilia,
Jorgensen's eyes light up with wonder as he talks about B.C.'s Broken Arrow
-- the U.S. military term for any accident involving nuclear weapons.
"It's a great story," he enthuses. "I tell people I,m doing
a story about the world's first lost nuclear weapon. And they say Did that
happen in the United States?, I say No, it happened in B.C.,"
-
- The documentary will follow three Broken Arrow experts
-- Dirk Septer, Dr. Jon Clearwater and Jim Laird -- as they attempt to
unlock the wreck's secrets.
"It's really a story about these three guys trying to solve this mystery,"
Jorgensen said. "It's their story."
He follows them to the wreck site, where Clearwater led an excavation of
artifacts last August. Those items will be part of a permanent exhibit
on the incident being assembled at the Diefenbunker, Canada's Cold War
museum in Ottawa.
Jorgensen will also interview surviving crew members and delve into official
reports.
They filmed on the waters off Prince Rupert on a foggy February winter
day, not unlike the one that claimed the B-36 bomber.
Most of the rest of the filming is happening in the Edmonton-area hangar.
Jorgensen's body of film work includes "Battle of the X-Planes",
a documentary on experimental aircraft engineering he shot for the PBS
series Nova.
"The hardest part for me in telling the story is keeping it to an
hour format," he said. "The story is so layered and so deep.
Just the search and rescue of this crew is pretty fascinating."
It took two days for searchers to find most of the crew on Princess Royal
Island.
"To my knowledge it's the biggest search and rescue mission in Air
Force history," he said.
"Canadians aren't told anything except, Please help us find our missing
crew., And that's all Canadians are ever told. They,re not told anything
about there being a weapon on board."
It is a fascinating story. And one that's rife with misinformation and
conspiracy fodder.
The U.S. military's official version of events, for example, still claims
the plane crashed in the Pacific near Vancouver Island. In fact it flew
hundreds of kilometres in the opposite direction -- past Terrace and Kitwanga
-- before crashing on Mt. Kologet.
How it got there and whether anyone stayed on board and flew it after the
crew bailed out are among the top questions haunting the flight.
American authorities also deny the plane ever took off with the plutonium
core necessary to make the bomb live. Observers like Septer have long had
their doubts.
Jorgensen promises their investigation will reveal new information and
new revelations that dramatically undermine the official U.S. story of
the incident.
"The evidence points to something very different," he said, declining
to say more. "You,ll have to wait and see."
But Jorgensen believes Septer, who is writing a book on the incident, has
gotten to the bottom of what really happened.
Will the U.S. military ever come clean and tell the full story?
"I don't think so," Jorgensen said. "If Dirk is right about
what happened, it will never see the light of day -- ever."
-
- "Lost Nuke" is to be completed by June and
is expected to air on Discovery in the fall.
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