Posted on 06/12/2014 11:35:21 AM PDT by Kartographer
On a January night in 1961, a U.S. Air Force bomber broke in half while flying over North Carolina. From the belly of the B-52 fell two bombs -- two nuclear bombs that hit the ground near the city of Goldsboro.
A disaster worse than the devastation wrought in Hiroshima and Nagasaki could have befallen the United States that night. But it didn't, thanks to a series of fortunate missteps.
Declassified documents that the National Security Archive released this week offered new details about the incident. The blaring headline read: "Multi-Megaton Bomb Was Virtually 'Armed' When It Crashed to Earth."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I am waiting for someone to say “I hate when that happens”.
Virtually ‘Armed’ is not the same thing as ‘armed’. Especially with nuclear capable aerially deployed anti-personnel devices.
I’d be said if it was DC.
Yup. Nukes just don’t “go off by themselves.”
Getting them to explode requires a very precise series of events.
I especially liked the implication that the Bomb that free-fell into the ground “almost exploded” from the impact. That is utterly and completely ludicrous. The delicate and precise mechanisms needed to make the Bomb go off would of necessity be destroyed by the impact.
Which is why Fat Man and Little Boy were designed to detonate about 1000 feet before impact. While preserving the delicate innards that MUST work, it also tends to multiply the effect of the blast by the time it reaches the ground.
'Almost' exploded. Sheesh. Where do they find these morons?
I'll take "The Anti-Nuclear Movement" for $500, Alex!
Bush’s fault.
I have no idea. But what I don’t understand is why journalists write this crap without first talking to a scientist or engineer.
Either lazy, stupid or think they know it all. Or all three.
Nukes are able to do surface and sub-surface detonations. These were never ‘armed’ or they would have detonated. An airburst nuke tends to multiply the blast potential as well as reduce fallout.
I especially liked the implication that the Bomb that free-fell into the ground “almost exploded” from the impact. That is utterly and completely ludicrous. The delicate and precise mechanisms needed to make the Bomb go off would of necessity be destroyed by the impact.
***
C’mon, this is CNN, so it’s not the facts so much as the feelings that count.
There has been several TV shows concerning this, pics included.
IIRC there was another incident In the Canadian Rockies with a B-36.
Didn’t see that one mentioned.
And one still buried in the mud a couple miles off Savannah .
Accidents happen. Perhaps if we had taken care of the Soviets during the war we wouldn’t have had to build so many and have them in such a high state of readiness.
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