US nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina – secret document

[:eek:]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961?CMP=twt_fd

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Isn't this an old story? I swear I heard about this nearly ten years ago.

 

[enterthemadness]

I swear....

 

[Kryptonian Warrior]

Isn't this an old story? I swear I heard about this nearly ten years ago.

If you go here it says that the document has been "recently" declassified. It was probably something else you heard about.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Can't say I disagree too much, it's just the circumstances and even the state named all seem really, really familiar. Oh well.

 

[Kryptonian Warrior]

It's still a very scary thought. I mean, millions of lives could have been lost. Think about this....if that bomb had gone off, not only would millions of lives been lost, but future lives would not have come into existence. For example, my mom and dad lived in Virginia during that time. Had that bomb gone off, they would have been killed and my brother and I would never had been born. That's just crazy to think about. Wow!

 

[Hobgoblin]

Isn't this an old story? I swear I heard about this nearly ten years ago.

Are you thinking of this?
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/h-bomb-lost-in-spain

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Actually no. I am remembering a live nuclear warhead being transported by plane over a southern state when it was not supposed to have been. Or maybe I am just getting old?

 

[Xeno]

I thought that this would be a rehash of the story of a nuke that was dumped from a bomber and was in the waters off Georgia, but it's a different accident. Two hydrogen bombs actually fell on land in North Carolina and one nearly detonated. That's something I hadn't heard of before.


The accident I thought they were referring to is a mid-air collision between a B-52 and an F-86 fighter jet over Tybee Island, Georgia in 1958. The bomber's captain dumped a 7,000 thermonuclear bomb into the Warsaw Sound off the island. That bomb has never been recovered. A few years ago the Discovery Channel sent a crew to search for the bomb, but it still remains lost. The knowledge that the US government could "lose" a massive nuke is frightening.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_collision

 

[Teelie]

I'm hoping that the bombs are more secure these days and take more effort to detonate than the 50-60's era... but that's just hope. I have no confidence in the military or government to actually secure anything properly or to be honest with the public anymore about anything that sheds a negative light on their actions.

 

[Alex_Spider]

Atomic bomb 260 times more powerful than Hiroshima nearly detonated over North Carolina


http://www.independent.ie/world-news/americas/atomic-bomb-260-times-more-powerful-than-hiroshima-nearly-detonated-over-north-carolina-29595742.html

A U.S. atom bomb nearly exploded in 1961 over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima, according to a declassified document.

The Guardian newspaper said the document, obtained by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, gave the first conclusive evidence that the United States came close to a disaster in January 1961.

The incident happened when two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina, after a B-52 bomber broke up in midair.

There has been persistent speculation about how serious the incident was and the U.S. government has repeatedly denied its nuclear arsenal put Americans' lives at risk through safety flaws, the newspaper said.

But the newly published document said one of the two bombs behaved exactly in the manner of a nuclear weapon in wartime, with its parachute opening and its trigger mechanisms engaged. Only one low-voltage switch prevented a cataclysm.

Fallout could have spread over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and even New York City, the paper said, threatening the lives of millions of people.

In the document, Parker Jones, a senior engineer in the Sandia National Laboratories responsible for the mechanical safety of nuclear weapons, concluded that "one simple, dynamo-technology, low-voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe."

Jones' report, titled "Goldsboro Revisited or: How I Learned to Mistrust the H-Bomb," was written eight years after the accident in which one hydrogen bomb fell into a field near Faro, North Carolina, and the other into a meadow.

He found that three of four safety mechanisms designed to prevent unintended detonation failed to operate properly in the Faro bomb.

When the bomb hit the ground, a firing signal was sent to the nuclear core of the device and it was only the final, highly vulnerable switch that averted a disaster.

"The MK 39 Mod 2 bomb did not possess adequate safety for the airborne alert role in the B-52," Jones concluded.

The Guardian said the document was found by Schlosser as he was researching a new book on the nuclear arms race, "Command and Control."

WOW glad it didn't happen.

 

[The Squirrel]

I'm just going to leave this here:

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=465669

 

[Alex_Spider]

Uh, my bad. I checked only the threads in bold and missed it.

 

[SpideyFan866]

'Murica!!!!

 

[Hotwire]

So, Schlosser was involved in this? Good job, dude! Good to see our mods branching out.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Actually no. I am remembering a live nuclear warhead being transported by plane over a southern state when it was not supposed to have been. Or maybe I am just getting old?

Yes, this incident has been common knowledge for years, but these specific details have only just been declassified.

Well common knowledge for people interested in nuclear safety, I should say.