Nov. 29, 2023
Letter to the Editor:
The people of Hawaii deserve answers to questions about the P-8A Navy plane accident in Kaneohe Bay.
The P-8A plane is not only a surveillance plane, but a submarine destroyer. Was the Navy P-8A plane that went off the runway into Kaneohe Bay armed?
If so, what kind of weapons was it carrying? Were weapons on the wings and/or in the bomb bay? Or both? Are the weapons damaged? How many weapons were on that plane?
The P-8A predecessor, the P-3 Orion, carried Nuclear Weapons, both nuclear depth charges and nuclear torpedoes. Does the P-8A carry nukes as well? 5 Squadrons of 9 planes each of the P-3 Orion were based at Barbers Point Naval Air Station for decades. Two squadrons, or a total of 18 planes, were constantly in the air tracking enemy submarines. When Barbers Point closed in 1999, squadrons were relocated to Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station.
The Navy began a seven-year transition from the P-3 Orion to the P-8 Poseidon in 2012. The transition included squadrons from Hawaii relocated to NAS Whidbey Island, Washington in 2016 and 2017. All of the active duty Navy P-3 Orion squadrons transitioned to the P-8 Poseidon by March 2020.
How many P-8 sub-hunter planes are flying around the Pacific today? How often do they land at military bases in Hawaii?
I co-authored a book in 1980 “The Dark Side Of Paradise — Hawaii in a Nuclear World.” Please see page 7 about the P-3 and pages 25 – 28 of the book about military nuclear accidents The book is available for free downloading on our website
www.malu-aina.org on the right side of the home page.
Let’s all hope the P-8A going into Kaneohe Bay did not involve a nuclear accident. But the military policy of “neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons”, keeps us all in the dark. We need more military transparency! Red Hill, Kaneohe, Pearl Harbor, Pohakuloa, etc. The people have a right to know what’s going on around them.
Jim Albertini,
President of Malu ‘Aina
--
Jim Albertini Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown) Hawai'i 96760
Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org
Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action 
