Thorlifter
Captain
I had no idea this happened
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Mars_Bluff_B-47_nuclear_weapon_loss_incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Mars_Bluff_B-47_nuclear_weapon_loss_incident
A-bomb dropped on US
- Thread starter Thorlifter
- Start date
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Oops !
Wildcat
Major
Oops indeed! I wonder what happened to the guy who accidentally pulled the release pin?
Aren't they still looking for the one dropped on the east coast of the USA? Georgia or the Carolina's I believe.
Wow...
johnbr
2nd Lieutenant
I wonder what would happen if it was now.
fubar57
General
Good story. Here's one that was lost in British Columbia
Broken Arrow, A Lost Nuclear (Fat Man Bomb) - Canada History and MysteriesCanada History and Mysteries
Geo
Broken Arrow, A Lost Nuclear (Fat Man Bomb) - Canada History and MysteriesCanada History and Mysteries
Geo
mikewint
Captain
I do remember this one as I just started high school. But this is really not exceptional:
During the Cold War the United States military misplaced at least eight nuclear weapons permanently. The Department of Defense calls these "broken arrows"—America's stray nukes, with a combined explosive force 2,200 times the Hiroshima bomb.
STRAY #1: INTO THE PACIFIC
February 13, 1950. An American B-36 bomber en route from Alaska to Texas during a training exercise lost power in three engines and began losing altitude. To lighten the aircraft the crew jettisoned its cargo, a 30-kiloton Mark 4 (Fat Man) nuclear bomb, into the Pacific Ocean. The conventional explosives detonated on impact, producing a flash and a shockwave. The bomb's uranium components were lost and never recovered. According to the USAF, the plutonium core wasn't present.
STRAY #2 3: INTO THIN AIR
March 10, 1956. A B-47 carrying two nuclear weapon cores from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to an overseas airbase disappeared during a scheduled air-to-air refueling over the Mediterranean Sea. After becoming lost in a thick cloud bank at 14,500 feet, the plane was never heard from again and its wreckage, including the nuclear cores, was never found. Although the weapon type remains undisclosed, Mark 15 thermonuclear bombs (commonly carried by B-47s) would have had a combined yield of 3.4 megatons.
STRAYS #4 5: SOMEWHERE IN A NORTH CAROLINA SWAMP
January 24, 1961. A B-52 carrying two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashed while taking off from an airbase in Goldsboro, North Carolina. One of the weapons sank in swampy farmland, and its uranium core was never found despite intensive search efforts to a depth of 50 feet. To ensure no one else could recover the weapon, the USAF bought a permanent easement requiring government permission to dig on the land.
STRAY #6: THE INCIDENT IN JAPAN
December 5, 1965. An A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft carrying a 1-megaton thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb) rolled off the deck of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga and fell into the Pacific Ocean. The plane and weapon sank in 16,000 feet of water and were never found. 15 years later the U.S. Navy finally admitted that the accident had taken place, claiming it happened 500 miles from land the in relative safety of the high seas. This turned out to be not true; it actually happened about 80 miles off Japan's Ryuku island chain, as the aircraft carrier was sailing to Yokosuka, Japan after a bombing mission over Vietnam.
These revelations caused a political uproar in Japan, which prohibits the United States from bringing nuclear weapons into its territory.
STRAYS #7 8: 250 KILOTONS OF EXPLOSIVE POWER
Spring, 1968. While returning to home base in Norfolk, Virginia, the U.S.S. Scorpion, a nuclear attack submarine, mysteriously sank about 400 miles to the southwest of the Azores islands. In addition to the tragic loss of all 99 crewmembers, the Scorpion was carrying two unspecified nuclear weapons—either anti-submarine missiles or torpedoes that were tipped with nuclear warheads. These could yield up to 250 kilotons explosive power (depending which kind of weapon was used).
The United States also lost a warhead off of Tybee Island, Georgia, in 1958. According to the U.S. Air Force, it did not contain a plutonium core and therefore could not be considered a functional nuclear weapon, though that has been debated. Whether you believe the U.S. Air Force on this matter is a personal call.
During the Cold War the United States military misplaced at least eight nuclear weapons permanently. The Department of Defense calls these "broken arrows"—America's stray nukes, with a combined explosive force 2,200 times the Hiroshima bomb.
STRAY #1: INTO THE PACIFIC
February 13, 1950. An American B-36 bomber en route from Alaska to Texas during a training exercise lost power in three engines and began losing altitude. To lighten the aircraft the crew jettisoned its cargo, a 30-kiloton Mark 4 (Fat Man) nuclear bomb, into the Pacific Ocean. The conventional explosives detonated on impact, producing a flash and a shockwave. The bomb's uranium components were lost and never recovered. According to the USAF, the plutonium core wasn't present.
STRAY #2 3: INTO THIN AIR
March 10, 1956. A B-47 carrying two nuclear weapon cores from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to an overseas airbase disappeared during a scheduled air-to-air refueling over the Mediterranean Sea. After becoming lost in a thick cloud bank at 14,500 feet, the plane was never heard from again and its wreckage, including the nuclear cores, was never found. Although the weapon type remains undisclosed, Mark 15 thermonuclear bombs (commonly carried by B-47s) would have had a combined yield of 3.4 megatons.
STRAYS #4 5: SOMEWHERE IN A NORTH CAROLINA SWAMP
January 24, 1961. A B-52 carrying two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashed while taking off from an airbase in Goldsboro, North Carolina. One of the weapons sank in swampy farmland, and its uranium core was never found despite intensive search efforts to a depth of 50 feet. To ensure no one else could recover the weapon, the USAF bought a permanent easement requiring government permission to dig on the land.
STRAY #6: THE INCIDENT IN JAPAN
December 5, 1965. An A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft carrying a 1-megaton thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb) rolled off the deck of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga and fell into the Pacific Ocean. The plane and weapon sank in 16,000 feet of water and were never found. 15 years later the U.S. Navy finally admitted that the accident had taken place, claiming it happened 500 miles from land the in relative safety of the high seas. This turned out to be not true; it actually happened about 80 miles off Japan's Ryuku island chain, as the aircraft carrier was sailing to Yokosuka, Japan after a bombing mission over Vietnam.
These revelations caused a political uproar in Japan, which prohibits the United States from bringing nuclear weapons into its territory.
STRAYS #7 8: 250 KILOTONS OF EXPLOSIVE POWER
Spring, 1968. While returning to home base in Norfolk, Virginia, the U.S.S. Scorpion, a nuclear attack submarine, mysteriously sank about 400 miles to the southwest of the Azores islands. In addition to the tragic loss of all 99 crewmembers, the Scorpion was carrying two unspecified nuclear weapons—either anti-submarine missiles or torpedoes that were tipped with nuclear warheads. These could yield up to 250 kilotons explosive power (depending which kind of weapon was used).
The United States also lost a warhead off of Tybee Island, Georgia, in 1958. According to the U.S. Air Force, it did not contain a plutonium core and therefore could not be considered a functional nuclear weapon, though that has been debated. Whether you believe the U.S. Air Force on this matter is a personal call.
Last edited:
Oops! Makes you think though and certainly some explanation still needed for some of those cases.
mikewint
Captain
We've got plenty what's a few lost nuclear weapons...
Crimea_River
Marshal
...and add to that how many were lost by Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France, .............
I feel so much better.
I feel so much better.
Gulp
Token
Senior Airman
If the Pu-239 was not present this was not a nuke, but rather a shell. The U-238 components of these bombs are not actually part of the fissile material, but rather a protective sphere around the fissile material. If it used the later Mark 4 pit then it would have been either a composite Pu-239 / U-235 structure, Pu-239 only, or U-235 only. But the pit is the core, so "no core" and U present probably indicates the none fissile shield.
T!
And then there was the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash involving four Mk28-type hydrogen bombs.
1966 Palomares B-52 crash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1966 Palomares B-52 crash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
fubar57
General
Update on the B.C. event...
Canadian army interested in old nuke that may have been found off Haida Gwaii
Canadian army interested in old nuke that may have been found off Haida Gwaii
fubar57
General
Follow up on above post, good news...
No nukes here! Canadian navy says B.C. diver's find not a bomb
No nukes here! Canadian navy says B.C. diver's find not a bomb
Tybee Island?
Robert Porter
Senior Master Sergeant
Several actually. 2 Fell on Goldsboro NC after a B-52 broke up mid air. New Details on the 1961 Goldsboro Nuclear Accident
Another fell off the coast, and there is a group that recently claimed they may have located it.
A fourth fell on South Carolina near Mars Bluff That time America accidentally dropped a nuke on South Carolina | Roadtrippers
I get the feeling someone in SAC did not like the Carolinas.
Another fell off the coast, and there is a group that recently claimed they may have located it.
A fourth fell on South Carolina near Mars Bluff That time America accidentally dropped a nuke on South Carolina | Roadtrippers
I get the feeling someone in SAC did not like the Carolinas.
Seymour Johnson AFB is just outside Goldsboro , N.C., it was also the home field of the B-52 that collided with a tanker over Spain in 1966, and loosed some more nukes over that coastline.
SJAFB was my first duty station in the USAF, I got there in late 66. The shake up in the command structure was still going on when I got there. Two nuclear incidents involving the same base in a 5 year time span, SAC didn't take kindly to bad publicity.
SJAFB was my first duty station in the USAF, I got there in late 66. The shake up in the command structure was still going on when I got there. Two nuclear incidents involving the same base in a 5 year time span, SAC didn't take kindly to bad publicity.
Users who are viewing this thread
Similar threads
