How the U.S. Narrowly Avoided a Nuclear Holocaust 33 Years Ago, and Still Risks Catastrophe Today

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Comment by Tony Nuspl on October 12, 2013 at 6:16pm

"Broken Arrow" incidents

On 13 February 1950, B-36 serial number 44-92075, crashed in an unpopulated region of British Columbia, Canada, resulting in the first loss of an American atom bomb. The bomb's plutonium core was dummy lead, but it did have TNT, and it detonated over the ocean before the crew bailed out.

On 22 May 1957, a B-36 accidentally dropped a Mark-17 hydrogen bomb on a deserted area while landing at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Only the conventional trigger detonated, the bomb being unarmed.

In late January 1958: a B-47 caught on fire and the plutonium in the nuclear weapon on board melted into the runway, at Sidi Slimane Air Base in Morocco

On February 5, 1958, near Savannah, Georgia, a nuclear bomb was lost. A USAF B-47 bomber jettisoned a Mark 15 Mod 0 nuclear bomb over the Atlantic Ocean after a midair collision with a USAF F-86 Sabre during a simulated combat mission from Homestead Air Force Base, Florida. The F-86's pilot ejected and parachuted  to safety. The USAF claimed the B-47 tried landing at Hunter Air Force Base,Georgia, three times before the bomb was jettisoned at 7,200 ft (2,200 m) near Tybee Island, Georgia.

On March 11, 1958, in Mars Bluff, South Carolina, a USAF B-47 bomber flying from Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia accidentally released an atomic bomb, leading to the non-nuclear detonation of a nuclear bomb. A home was destroyed and several people injured but the bomb's plutonium core did not explode.

On June 7, 1960, in New Egypt, New Jersey, a nuclear warhead was damaged by fire. A helium tank exploded and ruptured the fuel tanks of a USAF BOMARC-A surface-to-air missile at McGuire Air Force Base, NJ. The fire destroyed the missile, and contaminated the area directly below and adjacent to the missile.

On January 24, 1961, a USAF B-52 bomber caught fire and exploded in midair due to a major leak in a wing fuel cell 12 miles north of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, leading to the physical destruction of a nuclear bomb, and loss of nuclear materials. The incident released the bomber's two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb442/

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