2015’s Biggest Military Boondoggles: Mistakes That Are Killing Our Confidence in the Armed Forces

3. One Loose Nut

Just in case you needed a reminder how important even the smallest detail can be, there’s this story from August in which more than $62 million in damage was caused to an RC-135V Air Force reconnaissance airplane. Twenty-seven people nearly lost their lives after the plane caught fire just before takeoff. Why, you ask? According to US Air Force investigators, “Failure by … depot maintenance personnel to tighten a retaining nut connecting a metal oxygen tube to a junction fitting above the galley properly caused an oxygen leak. This leak created a highly flammable oxygen-rich environment that ignited.”