How a Norwegian weather missile almost sparked a nuclear war

As we all know by now, this alarming series of events did not end in disaster. For all the mounting tension, the story ended as a lighthearted feature at the end of that evening’s late news program, complete with Tom Lehrer’s darkly comic song “We’ll All Go Together When We Go” (“…all saturated with a bright glow”).

Jeremy Paxman, presenter of BBC Newsnight, noted: “Before we go, we should announce that nuclear war has not broken out today, despite the best efforts of a Russian news agency.” At 1:46 p.m., reports began arriving, citing Moscow’s Interfax news agency, that Russia had shot down an incoming missile. Reporters immediately contacted the Ministry of Defense, believing they were about to have front-row seats at Armageddon. But he was undeterred: “I’m confident the British didn’t fire any missiles at Russia,” and the Pentagon spokesman was none the wiser: “All we have are reports upon reports.”

Global currency markets fluctuated, while politicians, military leaders and journalists spent a frantic hour searching for information. At 14:52 GMT, people who were aware of the potential crisis were able to breathe again. Interfax corrected its report to say that although the Russian early warning system recorded a missile launch, the missile landed in Norwegian territory.

Later, a defense official in Norway confirmed that the launch took place safely. It was part of a routine scientific research program at a civilian missile range and was intended to collect information about the Northern Lights, the unique weather phenomenon known as the aurora borealis. The missile fell as planned into the sea near the remote Arctic island of Spitzbergen, a short distance from Russian airspace. Hours after the report was discovered to be false, unnamed Russian defense sources told Interfax that it was “too early to tell” whether the launch was intended to test their early warning radar system.