Broken Arrow: N. Carolina Almost Accidentally Nuked in 1961

Whoopsie! Apparently, a B-52 crashed and dropped a couple of A-bombs on N. Carolina during the cold war. At a time when it was policy to have nuclear armed bombers orbiting on station at all times!

Originally posted by Uncle Sam in some obscure congressional report that has been buried deep in the 'let's hope this goes away vault'

During a B-52 airborne alert mission structural failure of the right wing resulted in two weapons separating from the aircraft during aircraft breakup at 2,000 - 10,000 feet altitude. One bomb parachute deployed and the weapon received little impact damage. The other bomb fell free and broke apart upon impact. No explosion occurred. Five of the eight crew members survived. A portion of one weapon, containing uranium, could not be recovered despite excavation in the waterlogged farmland to a depth of 50 feet. The Air Force subsequently purchased an easement requiring permission for anyone to dig there. There is no detectable radiation and no hazard in the area.

Unfortunately, the bomb whose parachute failed to deploy is still lodged up to 150 feet under N. Carolina soil. The U.S. Government promptly bought the land, cordoned it off, and conduct soil and water tests for radioactivity to this day.

Now I wonder why we haven't heard of this one?

Links:

Government Quote

Full Story

[Edited on 5-3-2004 by DeltaChaos]

Good find, DC!!
I wonder if there are any published studies about increased cancer rates (especially in children) in the area. I'd be interested to see if this has affected anyone in spite of the supposed lack of radiation.

-B.

But yet again, quality will prove secondary to sensationalism, as this post will quickly seep into ATS obscurity.

Actually, I'm just waiting for Nerdling to post his opening statement, surfing the net for some dirt. I ran a boolean on the subject and it returned nothing on ATS, so for those with an inquiring mind, this is for you!

You're Welcome
DeltaChaos

If your interested in missing nukes also check out Tybee Island in Georgia, a nuke went missing there in the water and was never recovered. My friend attending college in savannah was none-too-pleased to hear about that on since the island is a popular party location, and hes swam in the very water where the weapon was lost.

Yeah, this actually reminded me of the Polaris incident. I'm looking into that right now.

Nerdling, where you at?!

DC

sounds like the
legendary atom bomb accidently dropped at Mars Hill

quite the ordinary urban legend here in the Carolinas
...another ho-humm small talk item to exchange as we all go 'live bait' fishing, for (king)mackrel, on the piers round here.

HEY, i think i might have made a mistake...err...

Here are a few more:

Link

Heres the ultimate list.

February 13, 1950
A B-36 Bomber drops a nuclear weapon from 8,000 ft. over the Pacific Ocean before crashing after experiencing serious mechanical difficulties on a simulated combat mission. Only the weapon's explosive material detonates. The bomb is never recovered from the ocean.

April 11, 1950
A B-29 Bomber carrying a nuclear bomb crashes into a mountain on Manzano Base near Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The bomb is destroyed but the accompanying nuclear capsule, which had not been inserted into bomb, remains intact.

July 27, 1956
A United States bomber crashes into a storage igloo containing three Mark 6 nuclear bombs at Lakenheath RAF base in the United Kingdom. The resulting fire damages the bombs, but fails to ignite their conventional explosive triggers.

March 10, 1957
A U.S. Air Force B-47 bomber flying from Florida to Europe with two capsules of nuclear materials for bombs fails to meet its aerial refueling plane. No traces are ever found.

May 22, 1957
A B-36 ferrying a nuclear weapon from Biggs Air Force Base, Texas to Kirtland accidentally discharges a bomb in the New Mexico desert. The high explosive material detonates, completely destroying the weapon and making a crater approximately 25 ft in diameter and 12 ft deep. Radiological survey of the area disclosed no radioactivity beyond the lip of the crater at which point the level was 0.5 milliroentgens. The nuclear capsules had not been inserted into the bombs. A nuclear detonation was not possible.

July 28, 1957
A C-124 aircraft en-route from Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, loses power in two engines and jettisons two nuclear weapons over the Atlantic ocean. The nuclear weapons were never found.

February 5, 1958
An F-86 aircraft and a B-47 Bomber collide midair on a simulated combat mission out of Homestead Air Force Base, Florida. The B-47 jettisons its nuclear weapon, which is not found and is considered irretrievably lost.

March 11, 1958
A B-47 bomber accidentally drops a nuclear weapon over Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The conventional explosive trigger detonates, leaving a crater 75 feet wide and 35 feet deep.

November 4, 1958
A B-47 catches fire on take-off and crashes, killing one crew member. The high explosive in the nuclear weapon on board explodes leaving a crater 35 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep. Nuclear materials are recovered near the crash site.

November 26, 1958
A B-47 catches fire on the ground. The single nuclear weapon on board is destroyed by fire. Contamination is limited to the immediate vicinity.

January 23, 1961
A B-52 bomber carrying two 24 megaton bombs crashes at Goldsboro, North Carolina. On one of the bombs, five of six interlocking safety devices fail, and a single switch prevents detonation. The explosion would have been 1,800 times more powerful than the bomb exploded at Hiroshima.

June 4, 1962
A nuclear warhead atop a Thor rocket booster falls into the Pacific Ocean when the booster has to be destroyed.

June 20, 1962
A second Thor rocket booster fails, and the nuclear device falls into the Pacific.

April 10, 1963
An American nuclear submarine, Thresher, sinks in the North Atlantic, killing all 129 crewmen.

December 5, 1965
A nuclear-armed airplane rolls off the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga and sinks in 16,000 feet of water off the coast of Japan.

January 17, 1966
A B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons has a midair accident while refueling and drops four nuclear weapons on Palomares, Spain. Although no nuclear explosion occurs, conventional explosions in two of the weapons scatter radioactive material over a populated area.

January 21, 1968
A B-52 bomber crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Thule Air Force Base, Greenland. The high explosive components of all four nuclear weapons aboard detonate, producing plutonium contamination over an area approximately 880,000 sq. feet.

March 8-10, 1968
A Soviet Golf-II class submarine with three nuclear tipped missiles aboard sinks 750 miles off the coast of Oahu of the Hawaiian island chain.

May 21, 1968
The American nuclear submarine Scorpion sinks in the Atlantic near the Azores, killing 99 crewmen.

May 24, 1968
An accident aboard the Soviet nuclear submarine K-27 kills five crew members. After unsuccessfully attempting to repair the submarine, the Soviets scuttle it along with its nuclear fuel near Novaya Zemlya.

January 14, 1969
A bomb is accidentally dropped on the deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, killing 25 and wounding 85 crewmen.

April 12, 1970
The Soviet nuclear submarine K-8 sinks in the Bay of Biscay, killing 53 crew members.

April 16, 1976
A nuclear warhead on the cruiser USS Albany is damaged (this type of incident is code-named Dull Sword).

September 8, 1977
A Soviet Delta class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine accidentally jettisons a nuclear warhead near Kamchatka in the Pacific. The bomb is recovered.

June 3, 1980
A 46-cent computer chip fails, causing the mistaken detection of a Soviet missile attack by the NORAD system. About 100 B-52 bombers were readied for take off along with the President's airborne command post before the error is detected.

September 20, 1980
A technician dropping a wrench and breaking a fuel tank causes an explosion in the silo of a Titan II Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile. The explosion blows off the 740-ton door and sends the re-entry vehicle with its 9-megaton warhead 600 feet into the air, killing one man and injuring 21 others.

April 9, 1981
The USS George Washington, a submarine carrying 160 nuclear warheads, collides with a Japanese freighter in the East China Sea.

November 2, 1981
An American Poseidon nuclear missile being winched from the submarine support ship USS Holland falls seventeen feet when the winch runs free. The automatic brakes on the winch bring it to rest just above the submarine's hull.

March 21, 1984
The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk collides with a Soviet attack submarine. The submarine is carrying nuclear armed torpedoes and the carrier is armed with several dozen nuclear weapons.

October 3, 1986
A fire breaks out aboard a Soviet Yankee Class nuclear submarine in the Atlantic about 400 miles east of Bermuda. The submarine sinks three days later while under tow.

April 7, 1989
The Soviet nuclear submarine Komsomolets sinks 300 miles off Norway, killing 42 crewmen.

September 27, 1991
A missile misfires on a Soviet Typhoon class nuclear-powered submarine carrying several nuclear weapons.

March 20, 1993
A Russian Delta III class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine collides with the USS Grayling, a nuclear-powered attack submarine in the Barent Sea.

January 19, 1996
A French Mirage 2000-N nuclear bomber crashes in southern France after flying into a flock of birds. French officials state that there were no nuclear missiles on board when the plane went down.

Thanks to the fine people here .

Link

[Edited on 5-3-2004 by Agent47]

This is the scariest.
June 3, 1980
A 46-cent computer chip fails, causing the mistaken detection of a Soviet missile attack by the NORAD system. About 100 B-52 bombers were readied for take off along with the President's airborne command post before the error is detected.

I wouldn't let these people out with a firework ! ... One incident like that could be considered an abberation, but 34 !!! (and thats just the list we know of !)

Your topic got my frizzled brain to action,
thanks DeltaChaos

heres what i got wrong_-> the place was:

Mars Bluff.....Not Mars Hill as i misstated!!

I searched up this PROP1.org SITE...Listing an UNBELIEVEABLE list of accidents

in many places/situations/devices=

For Example 17 Incidents with Bombs & Bombers,
from 13 feb 1950 thru 2 nov 1981

~*~

The Local Legendary Atom Bomb Drop @ Mars Bluff ->>

TRUE REPORT 11 March 1958
A B-47 on its way from Hunter AFB, Ga. to an overseas base Accidently Dropped an unarmed nuclear weapon into the garden of Walter Gregg & family in
MARS BLUFF, SC
The conventional explosives detonated, destroying
Greggs house and injuring 6 family members.
The blast resulted in the formation of a crater 50-70 ft
wide and 25-30 ft deep. Five other houses & a church
were also damaged; 5 months later the USAF paid
the Greggs $54,000. in compensation.

[sometimes we have to look in the freezer for lost items]
thats where i found the prop1.org site, enjoy!!

What a rough career for the hunk of junk

You have to wonder how many were real though, as in searching, I found a case where the hype was bigger than the event.

"I was surprised to hear that over the years there were some people who harbored feelings that there were some (nuclear bombs) on board and the government didn't level with them."

Bomber went down 42 years ago

And this happened when!!!!!! OMG, How come it has taken so long for the documents to be released??? Surely the poeple who HAD to sell the land could have made money out of that story .... or would they have been disposed of if they would have said anything???

Originally posted by Ace_Rimmer
And this happened when!!!!!! OMG, How come it has taken so long for the documents to be released??? Surely the poeple who HAD to sell the land could have made money out of that story .... or would they have been disposed of if they would have said anything???

Under imminent domain, the government only makes one offer, you take it or they seize the land anyway and you get no money, so they probably got screwed in the long run.

Originally posted by alternateheaven

Originally posted by Ace_Rimmer
And this happened when!!!!!! OMG, How come it has taken so long for the documents to be released??? Surely the poeple who HAD to sell the land could have made money out of that story .... or would they have been disposed of if they would have said anything???

Under imminent domain, the government only makes one offer, you take it or they seize the land anyway and you get no money, so they probably got screwed in the long run.

This may be a case where I think eminent domain may be justifiable.

Apparently, the warhead has remained intact to this day as radiation levels are still normal. It's buried in a swamp, so getting it out would probably require it to be drained.

DeltaChaos

Interesting list Agent47.

I know of one other nuclear accident. In a book on US submarines, a mention is made of a US B-52 accidently dropping a nuclear device into the Atlantic ocean. A frantic and costly effort was made to recover the device as it was in shallow water and they didn't want the Russians to find it first. It occured during the early seventies i think.

Also the accident on the USS Enterprise was caused by a missile accidently being fired from an aircraft whilst on deck. Have seen video of this and it was horific.

interesting, 1961, durring the time period of Operation Chrome Dome, we had stratofortresses everywhere!

Hats off to DC and all you guys for the great research. This is the kind of stuff I hoped to find when I came to ATS!!

How better to prepare for the future, than by learning what our government has hid from us in the past.

DC, I scanned the info on the North Carolina event, but did not notice where it happened. Did I miss that part? Thanks for the info.

June 4, 1962
A nuclear warhead atop a Thor rocket booster falls into the Pacific Ocean when the booster has to be destroyed.

THat one is scary also because it does not say it was an a failure or a test. IT says it was launched and had to be downed. Ummm to me that sounds like we launched a nuke at soemthng and decided half way we need to reconsider this.