US Air Force investigators are trying to determine how a shipment of sensitive aircraft communications parts wound up on an Internet auction site last week, Newsweekreported today.
An antiques dealer put the parts, which are used in the SR-71 spy plane, the F-16 fighter, KC-10 aerial tankers and C-5 Galaxy giant cargo jets, up for sale on the eBay auction site after buying them for $244 in an unclaimed-property sale from a shipping company, the magazine said.
The dealer, Mr Norb Novocin, said he discovered after buying the crate-load of parts in Florida that 11 of the 18 items were coded "D," which demands total destruction and does not permit public ownership in a condition other than scrap metal.
The parts had lain in a storage warehouse for 12 years after getting lost while being shipped from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to a supply depot in Georgia. Mr Novocin informed the depot, who said they did not want the parts and suggested he sell them on eBay.
During a seven-day auction on eBay that ended on May 29th, Mr Novocin says he sold four items, including an X-Band Weather Radar Modulator for $500 and a high-frequency radio circuit card for $32. Air Force officials were not aware that the items were being sold before being contacted by Newsweek, the magazine said.
"This is now under active investigation by the OSI (Office of Special Investigations)," Lt Col. Mike Caldwell, the Air Force public affairs chief at the Pentagon, told Newsweek.
The magazine pointed out that rogue nations such as Iran routinely seek replacement parts for their US-manufactured military planes.
Mr Novocin is cooperating with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, who asked him to return the materials to the government.