Two dramatic nuclear accidents described in book detailing U.S. Air Force gaffes. The information is based on FOI (Freedom of Information) requests, part of your "right to know" under U.S. law.
Schlosser's central narrative is built around a deadly 1980 explosion at a missile silo in Damascus, Arkansas, where the W-53 thermonuclear warhead, the most powerful weapon ever mounted on a missile, sat atop a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
On January 23, 1961, a B-52 packing a pair of Mark 39 hydrogen bombs suffered a refueling snafu and went into an uncontrolled spin over North Carolina. In the cockpit of the rapidly disintegrating bomber was a lanyard attached to the bomb-release mechanism. Intense G-forces tugged hard at it and unleashed the nukes, which, at four megatons, were 250 times more powerful than the weapon that leveled Hiroshima. One of them "failed safe" and plummeted to the ground unarmed. The other weapon's failsafe mechanisms—the devices designed to prevent an accidental detonation—were subverted one by one.
Absent the Soviet threat, it's easy to forget that these ungodly devices are still all around us. An entire generation is blissfully unaware of the specter of nuclear devastation.
A Sneak Peek at Eric Schlosser's Terrifying New Book on Nuclear Weapons
His six-year investigation of America's mishaps and near-misses will scare the daylights out of you.
—By Michael Mechanic
| Sun Sep. 15, 2013
excerpt from the book available here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/eric-schlosser-command-...
also see the related video:
How the U.S. Narrowly Avoided a Nuclear Holocaust
http://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/video/how-the-u-s-narrowly-avo...
and the list of broken arrow incidents, in the comments to the above video