have tended to minimize exposure to take a course that was probably feacty
along the "hot line" of the BRAVO cloud.
At 1900
Enewetak.
a second cloud-track aircraft, Wilson 3,
was sent east fubm
The flight path was nearly straight east until beyond Ron
and then the aircraft headed generally northeast while making severa
zag swings across this northeast vector in search of the cloud.
At t
southern tip of one of these swings, after 2200, Wilson 3 got two rea
that may have been the northern edge of the cloud,
but these readings
not much above the background readings taken throughout the flight.
readings were taken at 10,000 feet (3.05 km) over the Rongelap and Ro
atolls shortly after 2000 hours.
It is clear that at this time Hq JTF 7 did not know where the clo
was, nor where it had been.
There was apparently no great concern ab
this, however, as the Wilson 4 cloud-track flight was cancelled at 19
(Reference 26).
The MIKE experience indicated that although less tha
percent of the detonation's radioactive debris had been accounted for
problems had occurred.
The, controlling assumption was that the cloud
gone out on the 65° bearing and that the tracking aircraft were simpl
behind it.
The morning's contamination of the fleet lying southeast
Bikini and the unquantified report of contamination by the VP-29 P2v t
aborted were not consistent, but this contamination was believed the r
sult of a wind change at the 20,000-foot (6.1-km) level.
This wind ch
waS presumed to have resulted in a widespread east-west distribution o
fine particles
(Reference 16, p. K-5)
and was apparently assumed to be
minor irritation, not a major problen.
During the briefing of the task force commander on the Estes at 20
a second message arrived from the Rongerik detachment.
This message r
iterated that the pen had been off the chart since 1450 and requested
acknowledgment
(Reference 83).
At about the same time, messages were
ceived from Wilson 3 indicating low readings above this area
16).
(Referenc
At 2200 a reply was prepared explaining to the Rongerik detachme
220
no