Palomares

Four bombs. One missing. A race against radiation and time.

Palomares, southern Spain, 1966. A quiet rural village of barely a thousand residents, living without modern comforts and sustained by the land, becomes the centre of a global crisis. On 17 January, a mid‑air collision between two US military aircraft scatters four thermonuclear bombs across the region.

One bomb is recovered intact. Two rupture, releasing clouds of radioactive material over the countryside. And the fourth… vanishes without a trace.

Told with the tension of a thriller and built on extensive interviews with eyewitnesses, investigators, and experts, this documentary series retraces the dramatic 80‑day hunt for the missing bomb — a search marked by secrecy, fear, and political theatre. At its peak, the world watches as Spain’s Minister of Information and Tourism, Manuel Fraga Iribarne, stages his now‑legendary swim in the waters of Palomares to reassure the public.