Nuclear bomb nearly detonated after falling on North Carolina, declassified report says
There are few things in this world that can change the course of history faster than a nuclear bomb exploding. The devastation is immediate and lasts for years.
That makes the latest details to emerge about a January 24, 1961, incident involving two nuclear bombs all the more jarring.
A B-52 bomber broke up in the sky over North Carolina, and one of the two bombs on board was in the armed setting by the time it hit the ground near Goldsboro, North Carolina, according to a newly declassified report published on Monday by the National Security Archive.
If the switch had not been damaged by the impact of the crash, the weapon could have detonated, the report said.
A South Carolina doctor treated a family for injuries sustained when a sudden, inexplicable explosion tore through their backyard. The injuries were not serious, and after spending the night at the doctors house they returned home to discover that the object in the 15-metre crater left behind their house was an atomic bomb that had fallen from the passing B-52.
The so-called Goldsboro incident received widespread attention in September last year, when details about the incident were published in a new book, Command and Control , by Eric Schlosser. And it sounds just as ominous as described on Monday by Bill Burr of the National Security Archives.
The report implied that because Weapon 2 landed in a free-fall, without the parachute operating, the timer did not initiate the bombs high voltage battery (trajectory arming), a step in the arming sequence, Burr wrote. For Weapon 2, the Arm/Safe switch was in the safe position, yet it was virtually armed because the impact shock had rotated the indicator drum to the armed position. But the shock also damaged the switch contacts, which had to be intact for the weapon to detonate.
I don't remember that, but I remember 3 Mile Island.
The US record with Nuclear items doesn't exactly instill confidence.
I have to add Command and Control to my reading list.
I forgot all about that.
Gettin' old.
Yeah, I remember. One fell in New Mexico, too, but it didn't have a detonator in it.