Nuke weapons accidents on U.S. soil ("broken arrows") - Tulsa Peace Fellowship2024-03-28T09:02:35Zhttps://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/forum/topics/nuke-weapons-accidents-on-u-s-soil?feed=yes&xn_auth=noFor good measure, the list of…tag:tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com,2023-07-20:2567841:Comment:1370862023-07-20T22:44:47.448ZTony Nusplhttps://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/profile/TonyNuspl
<p>For good measure, the list of the</p>
<div><div class="article-body__callout-box"><div class="callout-box-card" style="width: 342px;"><div class="callout-box-card__container"><h3>Three missing US bombs</h3>
<div class="body"><div><p>One Mark 15 thermonuclear bomb. Where? Tybee Island, Georgia. When? February 5 1958. How? It was jettisoned to reduce the plane's weight for a safer landing. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">(see details above, in this discussion…</span></p>
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<p>For good measure, the list of the</p>
<div><div class="article-body__callout-box"><div class="callout-box-card" style="width: 342px;"><div class="callout-box-card__container"><h3>Three missing US bombs</h3>
<div class="body"><div><p>One Mark 15 thermonuclear bomb. Where? Tybee Island, Georgia. When? February 5 1958. How? It was jettisoned to reduce the plane's weight for a safer landing. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">(see details above, in this discussion thread)</span></p>
<p>One B43 thermonuclear bomb. Where? The Philippine Sea. When? December 5 1965. How? A bomber plane, pilot and nuclear weapon slipped off the side of a carrier boat, never to be seen again. </p>
<p>One B28FI thermonuclear bomb, second stage. Where? Thule Air Base, Greenland. When? 22 May 1968. How? A cabin fire forced the crew to eject, leaving the plane to crash with its nuclear payload onboard. <br/><br/>source:<br/> <strong>"The lost nuclear bombs that no one can find"</strong><br/>By Zaria Gorvett<br/>4th August 2022<br/>BBC News <br/><a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220804-the-lost-nuclear-bombs-that-no-one-can-find" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220804-the-lost-nuclear-bombs-that-no-one-can-find</a></p>
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</div> Iin 1964, in Oklahoma, a miss…tag:tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com,2021-06-26:2567841:Comment:1328822021-06-26T18:38:00.736ZTony Nusplhttps://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/profile/TonyNuspl
<p><span>Iin 1964, in Oklahoma, a missile exploded while housed at the Frederick site of <span id="freeText2173305647933952459">Altus Air Force Base</span>, although the nuclear warhead remained unaffected. The resulting explosion blew the 3-foot thick 75-ton concrete doors of the nuclear silo right off of their hinges. The Frederick site was never rebuilt after this accident and remained closed until the Atlas program was deactivated in the Spring of 1965.…<br></br></span></p>
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<p><span>Iin 1964, in Oklahoma, a missile exploded while housed at the Frederick site of <span id="freeText2173305647933952459">Altus Air Force Base</span>, although the nuclear warhead remained unaffected. The resulting explosion blew the 3-foot thick 75-ton concrete doors of the nuclear silo right off of their hinges. The Frederick site was never rebuilt after this accident and remained closed until the Atlas program was deactivated in the Spring of 1965.<br/></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.atlasmissilesilo.com/Accidents_577thSMS_Site6.htm" target="_blank">http://www.atlasmissilesilo.com/Accidents_577thSMS_Site6.htm</a> [date accessed 18 June 2018]</p>
<p><span> </span></p>
<p>Compare the 1980 accident in Damascus, Arkansas, where a Titan missile exploded in its silo.</p>
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<p><span><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql b0tq1wua a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d9wwppkn fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb hrzyx87i jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto">Atlas ICBMs, part of the nation’s Cold War nuclear deterrent, were stored vertically in deep, heavily-reinforced underground silos at 12 locations near Altus AFB from 1962 to 1965. Each missile carried a warhead more than 200 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII.<br/><br/></span></span></p>
<p>Also, see on YouTube [no sound]:</p>
<p><b>Atlas Missile Malfunction in HD</b><br/> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I55LkRz3Gok" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I55LkRz3Gok</a> [date accessed 26 June 2021]</p>
<p>This was a test of the Atlas E Missile outfitted with a dummy warhead at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast.</p>
<p><span><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql b0tq1wua a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d9wwppkn fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb hrzyx87i jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto"> </span></span></p> May 22, 1957- A U.S. B-36 bom…tag:tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com,2021-05-23:2567841:Comment:1325282021-05-23T14:22:59.500ZTony Nusplhttps://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/profile/TonyNuspl
<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">May 22, 1957- A U.S. B-36 bomber accidentally dropped a Hydrogen Bomb on Albuquerque, New Mexico. The bombardier, Lt. Robert Carp lost his balance in the bomb bay area and grabbed for a handle that released the nuke. He ran back to the cockpit yelling: "I didn't touch anything! I didn't touch anything!"…</div>
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<div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"></div>
<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">May 22, 1957- A U.S. B-36 bomber accidentally dropped a Hydrogen Bomb on Albuquerque, New Mexico. The bombardier, Lt. Robert Carp lost his balance in the bomb bay area and grabbed for a handle that released the nuke. He ran back to the cockpit yelling: "I didn't touch anything! I didn't touch anything!"</div>
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<div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">The bomb blew up a mesa and killed a cow but miraculously the thermonuclear triggering mechanism didn't kick in.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">This was kept a classified secret until the late 1980's.<br/><br/>Well, not Albuquerque, per se. Wikipedia gives the location for this broken arrow as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtland_AFB" class="mw-redirect" title="Kirtland AFB">Kirtland AFB</a> in New Mexico. "A B-36 ferrying a nuclear weapon from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggs_Air_Force_Base" class="mw-redirect" title="Biggs Air Force Base">Biggs AFB</a> to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtland_Air_Force_Base" title="Kirtland Air Force Base">Kirtland AFB</a> dropped a nuclear weapon on approach to Kirtland. The weapon struck the ground 4.5 miles south of the Kirtland control tower and 0.3 miles west of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandia_Base" title="Sandia Base">Sandia Base</a> reservation. The weapon was completely destroyed by the detonation of its high explosive material, creating a crater 12 feet (3.7 m) deep and 25 feet (7.62 m) in diameter. Radioactive contamination at the crater lip amounted to 0.5 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milliroentgen" class="mw-redirect" title="Milliroentgen">milliroentgen</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-CG-HR-3_16-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents#cite_note-CG-HR-3-16">[16]</a></sup> "<br/><br/>Again this was a non-nuclear unintentional detonation of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_17_nuclear_bomb" title="Mark 17 nuclear bomb">Mark 17</a> thermonuclear bomb, caused by human error ('the human factor').<br/><br/><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents#1950s" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents#1950s</a> <br/></div>
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<p></p> The Mars Bluff "mishap": On 1…tag:tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com,2020-03-17:2567841:Comment:432752020-03-17T21:51:39.246ZTony Nusplhttps://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/profile/TonyNuspl
<p>The Mars Bluff "mishap": On 11 March 1958, in Mars Bluff, South Carolina, a man called Walter Gregg was building shelves in his shed with his son, when a Mark 6 atom bomb landed in his yard. Mrs Gregg was inside, sewing. The little Gregg girls were playing outside. The fissile core of the bomb had been removed for safer transit, but the explosives that powered it nonetheless blew the Gregg house to bits, killing half a dozen of the Gregg chickens. In military talk this sort of thing is known…</p>
<p>The Mars Bluff "mishap": On 11 March 1958, in Mars Bluff, South Carolina, a man called Walter Gregg was building shelves in his shed with his son, when a Mark 6 atom bomb landed in his yard. Mrs Gregg was inside, sewing. The little Gregg girls were playing outside. The fissile core of the bomb had been removed for safer transit, but the explosives that powered it nonetheless blew the Gregg house to bits, killing half a dozen of the Gregg chickens. In military talk this sort of thing is known as a "broken arrow", an accident involving nuclear weapons that falls short of causing risk of war, and Schlosser's book is about the several dozens of these that have happened – counting only those of US origin – since the atomic bomb was invented in 1945. The next-up sort of accident is called a Nucflash. So far, it hasn't happened, but Schlosser considers this due as much to luck as anything else.<br/><br/>excerpted from the book review:</p>
<p>Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety<br/>shocking details of nuclear accidents<br/>by Jenny Turner</p>
<p>25 Oct 2013 <br/>The Guardian</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/25/command-control-eric-schlosser-review" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/25/command-control-eric-schlosser-review</a></p>
<p><br/><br/></p> Little short of a villain: th…tag:tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com,2016-11-26:2567841:Comment:358632016-11-26T20:58:07.900ZTony Nusplhttps://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/profile/TonyNuspl
<p>Little short of a villain: this U.S. pilot, 50 years ago, dropped a nuclear bomb in U.S. waters, a bomb nobody has been able to find and make safe.<br></br><br></br></p>
<p>Shortly after midnight on 5 February 1958, Howard Richardson was on a top-secret training flight for the US Strategic Air Command.</p>
<p>It was the height of the Cold War and the young Major Richardson's mission was to practise long-distance flights in his B-47 bomber in case he was ordered to fly from Homestead Air Force Base…</p>
<p>Little short of a villain: this U.S. pilot, 50 years ago, dropped a nuclear bomb in U.S. waters, a bomb nobody has been able to find and make safe.<br/><br/></p>
<p>Shortly after midnight on 5 February 1958, Howard Richardson was on a top-secret training flight for the US Strategic Air Command.</p>
<p>It was the height of the Cold War and the young Major Richardson's mission was to practise long-distance flights in his B-47 bomber in case he was ordered to fly from Homestead Air Force Base in Florida to any one of the targets the US had identified in Russia.</p>
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<td class="sibtbg"><div class="o"><img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45947000/jpg/_45947538_richardson2.jpg" alt="Colonel Howard Richardson" width="226" vspace="0" hspace="0" height="170" border="0"/></div>
<div><div class="mva"><img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif" alt="" width="24" height="13" border="0"/> <b>We thought maybe it was something from outer space, but it could only be another plane</b> <img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif" alt="" width="23" vspace="0" height="13" border="0" align="right"/></div>
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<div class="mva"><div>Colonel Howard Richardson</div>
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<p>The training was to be as realistic as possible, so on board was a single massive H-bomb - the nuclear weapon he might one day be instructed to drop to start World War III.</p>
<p>As he cruised at 38,000 feet over North Carolina and Georgia, his plane was hit by another military aircraft, gouging a huge hole in the wing and knocking an engine almost off its mountings, leaving it hanging at a perilous angle. His bomber started plummeting to earth and he struggled with the flight deck to get any kind of response.</p>
<p>As he dropped to 20,000 feet, he somehow got the damaged craft under control and levelled out.</p>
<p>He and his co-pilot then made a fateful decision which probably saved both their lives and the lives of countless people on the ground.</p>
<p>As he dropped to 20,000 feet, he somehow got the damaged craft under control and levelled out.</p>
<p>He and his co-pilot then made a fateful decision which probably saved both their lives and the lives of countless people on the ground. He managed to direct the B-47 a mile or two off the coast of Savannah and opened the bomb doors, dropping the bomb somewhere into the shallow waters and light sand near Tybee Island.</p>
<p>Immediately after the crash, a search was set up to find the unexploded nuclear weapon, buried somewhere too close for comfort to the US's second-largest eastern seaport and one of its most beautiful cities.</p>
<p>Numerous other searches have followed, both official and unofficial, and each of them has also proved unsuccessful.</p>
<p>So the bomb remains tucked away on the sea-bed, in an area which is frequently dredged by shrimp fishermen...<br/><br/>[Some] raise apocalyptic fears of a thermonuclear explosion which could destroy much of the US eastern seaboard.</p>
<p>Fears have also been expressed that the bomb could be located and recovered by a terrorist group, and there are even some who believe that may already have happened.</p>
<p><br/><br/><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8107908.stm" target="_blank">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8107908.stm</a></p>