that fell on land detonated without setting off a nuclear explosion (akin to a dirty bomb explosion). This ignited the pyrophoric plutonium, producing a cloud that was dispersed by a wind. A total of was contaminated with radioactive material. This included residential areas, farmland (especially tomato farms) and woods. To defuse public alarm over contamination, on 8 March Spanish minister for information and tourism Manuel Fraga Iribarne and United States ambassador Angier Biddle Duke swam on nearby beaches in front of the press. First the ambassador and some companions swam at Mojácar — a resort away — and then Duke and Fraga swam at the Quitapellejos beach in Palomares. Despite the cost and the number of personnel involved in the cleanup, traces of contamination remained forty years later. Snails were observed with unusual levels of radioactivity. Additional tracts of land were also appropriated for testing and further cleanup. However, no indication of health issues has been discovered among the local population in Palomares. Political consequences President Lyndon B. Johnson was first apprised of the situation during his morning briefing on the day of the accident. He was told that the 16th Nuclear Disaster Team had been sent to investigate, per the standard procedures for this type of accident. News stories on the crash began appearing the following day, and it was on the front page of both the New York Times and Washington Post on 20 January. Reporters sent to the accident scene covered angry demonstrations by local residents. On 4 February, an underground Communist organization initiated a protest by 600 people in front of the U.S. Embassy in Spain. The Duchess of Medina Sidonia, Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo (known as the "Red Duchess" for her socialist activism), eventually received a 13-month prison sentence for leading an illegal protest. Four days after the accident, the Spanish government under Franco's dictatorship stated that "the Palomares incident was evidence of the dangers created by NATO's use of the Gibraltar airstrip", announcing that NATO aircraft would no longer be permitted to fly over Spanish territory to or from Gibraltar. On 25 January, as a diplomatic concession, the U.S. announced that it would no longer fly over Spain with nuclear weapons, and on 29 January the Spanish government formally banned U.S. flights over its territory that carried such weapons. This caused other nations hosting U.S. forces to review their policies, with Philippine Foreign