US nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina (1961)

[erwbol]

Exclusive: Journalist uses Freedom of Information Act to disclose 1961 accident in which one switch averted catastrophe

A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima.

The document, obtained by the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, gives the first conclusive evidence that the US was narrowly spared a disaster of monumental proportions when two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina on 23 January 1961. The bombs fell to earth after a B-52 bomber broke up in mid-air, and one of the devices behaved precisely as a nuclear weapon was designed to behave in warfare: its parachute opened, its trigger mechanisms engaged, and only one low-voltage switch prevented untold carnage.

[Blue Train]

They were hydrogen bombs, which makes an atomic bomb out to be conventional in comparison. To give you an idea. You need an atomic explosion to set off the hydrogen explosion. An atomic explosion is an fission and hydrogen would be fusion like the sun.

America has had all kinds of Broken Arrows (as they're called) disasters here and abroad.

Most (including the thermonuclear stage) of one of the Goldsboro bombs is still buried there.

​There were two incidents with actual explosions and large scale contamination.

The 1966 Palomares accident which happened during a refueling of a 5-52. It was carrying 4 B28 hydrogen bombs. Three of them landing in Palomares....with two of them resulting in a non-nuclear explosion, which resulted in 650 acres being contaminated. Even though they dug up all the soil and went a couple feet deep....there is still traces of radiation to be found. The fourth one was eventually found in the sea close to 3 months later.

Also the 1968 Thule accident....also involving 4 B28 hydrogen bombs and this time all 4 of them resulted in non-nuclear explosion and contamination.

Of course, a higher rate of cancer in those areas as a result.

The most recent incident would be the 1980 incident in Arkansas, which involved a W53 warhead, which was the most powerful warhead ever made.

P.S. Something no one in Japan or America like to discuss.....a plane carrying a 1 megaton hydrogen bomb fell off an aircraft carrier into the Pacific Ocean not far from Okinawa. They never found it.

There are actually several that are completely lost.

Edited September 20, 2013 by Blue Train