Posted on 09/21/2013 1:42:30 AM PDT by Mr Radical
A four-megaton nuclear bomb was one switch away from exploding over the US in 1961, a newly declassified US document confirms.
Two bombs were on board a B-52 plane that went into an uncontrolled spin over North Carolina - both bombs fell and one began the detonation process.
The document was first published in the UK's Guardian newspaper. The US government has acknowledged the accident before, but never made public how close the bomb came to detonating. The document was obtained by journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act.
The plane was on a routine flight when it began to break up over North Carolina on 23 January 1961...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room.
There’s a Mark 15 nuke buried in the mud off Savannah, Ga.
It’s never been found.
Jettisoned by a B-47 in the late ‘50s.
Actually, there was only one. The armed/safe switch.
All four worked as designed. Deploy the chute. Charge the capacitors. Fire the primary!
Oh, never mind, it's on SAFE!
Another great line from the movie.
That woulda wrecked his Presidency... of course, he’d have probably blamed Ike. It’s what Zero woulda done.
Here is a list (with links) to a few of the known “broken arrow” incidents:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Arrow_%28nuclear%29#Broken_Arrow
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1950 British Columbia B-36 crash
1956 B-47 disappearance
1958 Mars Bluff, South Carolina
1958 Tybee Island mid-air collision
1961 Yuba City B-52 crash
1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash
1965 Philippine Sea A-4 incident
1966 Palomares B-52 crash[4]
1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash
We may have averted a nuclear detonation in January of 1961, but we suffered a “nuclear birth” in August of the same year. August 4th to be exact:)
I had to look that up, why do you know his birthday?
I am not so sure it was a birth on Aug 4th, either a hatching or UFO drop off.
Back in the old days, they had to make do with good writing, good acting, directing and editing. Today just about all we have is digital verisimilitude, which to me is a poor substitute.
Yes it had long been standard procedure for bombers to jettison their payload if the plane had a mechanical emergency. That policy was quietly changed for nuclear bombs after this incident.
If that nuke had gone off, I wonder how the Feds would have attempted to explain it. I mean sorry we make a mistake and took out a million or so people in eastern North Carolina just doesn’t slice it.
Oh, after a couple hundred FR threads on the subject, things tend to stick with you.
This near-detonation was 2.5 days into Office.
Obviously, Bush's fault!
A Stanley K. and Peter Sellers masterpiece!
I agree. My library had a VHS copy and I watched it years ago.
ff
Please explain.
ff
Trivia - The actual line was "In Dallas", not Vegas. The movie was completed but not yet released when JFK was assassinated and Kubrik dubbed over "Vegas". If you watch Slim's mouth you can see it.
I agree, that scene with the reading of the checklist is one of the great moments in movies. The looks on the crew's faces as they unpack and inventory is priceless.
Yea I had heard about the city change but forgot over time. It is a great scene.
Ping
We’ll meet again,
don’t know where,
don’t known when...
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