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[Ether_Snake]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961

A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima.

The document, obtained by the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, gives the first conclusive evidence that the US was narrowly spared a disaster of monumental proportions when two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina on 23 January 1961. The bombs fell to earth after a B-52 bomber broke up in mid-air, and one of the devices behaved precisely as a nuclear weapon was designed to behave in warfare: its parachute opened, its trigger mechanisms engaged, and only one low-voltage switch prevented untold carnage.

Each bomb carried a payload of 4 megatons – the equivalent of 4 million tons of TNT explosive. Had the device detonated, lethal fallout could have been deposited over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and as far north as New York city – putting millions of lives at risk.

Supposedly one of the two bombs that dropped remains unrecovered

 

[SteveWinwood]

I've heard this before, and yeah they still don't know where it is.

There was a whole hour long documentary about it at some point a few years ago.

Edit: Nevermind I think I'm thinking of this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8107908.stm

Lots of lost unexploded bombs apparently.

 

[Angelus Errare]

That's a scary thought.

Would make for interesting works of fiction.

 

[Mike M]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961



Supposedly one of the two bombs that dropped remains unrecovered

 

[GoldenEye 007]

Was it the late 1960s where a US plane crashed near Spain I think carrying a couple bombs?

 

[Escape Goat]

Megaton indeed.

 

[Jean Valjean]

That's some Tom Clancy shit...

The Sum of All Fears

 

[PaulExcellent]

oh thats great
not feeling worried at all
nooooooooooooooope

 

[Indrid Cold1]

Ain't it cool?

Edit: lol beaten and beaten well.

 

[IntelliHeath]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961



Supposedly one of the two bombs that dropped remains unrecovered

That's creepy. What if other people found it and could've use it for their own purpose?

 

[goomba]

They would have blamed the Soviet Union

 

[Plywood]

How the fuck do you not know where you dropped that shit.

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

Wow. Is it possible the other bomb was destroyed when the plane broke up without it going off? Maybe it's not out there still?

 

[Indrid Cold1]

Can this be a thread to also discuss how astoundingly great Broken Arrow is? Travolta's best work.

 

[Batigol]

Can it still be detonated?

 

[shadyspace]

That a nuke hasn't gone off in a populated area since 1945 is fuckin' mindboggling

 

[meltingparappa]

Isn't it INCREDIBLY hard to successfully ignite the payload?

If the warhead goes off, it'll spread radioactive contaminant all over the place and that wouldn't be so great, but it's nowhere near the magnitude of damage if the bomb properly detonated and you get Hiroshima-esque results.

...right, physics-GAF?

 

[Escape Goat]

Isn't it INCREDIBLY hard to successfully ignite the payload?

If the warhead goes off, it'll spread radioactive contaminant all over the place and that wouldn't be so great, but it's nowhere near the magnitude of damage if the bomb properly detonated and you get Hiroshima-esque results.

...right, physics-GAF?

260 times Hiroshima-esque results!

 

[Hrothgar]

The lost bomb is probably in some barn among an anti-gov person's weapon arsenal.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

They would have blamed the Soviet Union

And let them "get away with it"? Or you think they'd rather destroy the world (themselves included) than fess up to an accident?

How the fuck do you not know where you dropped that shit.

Because the aircraft is moving quickly, and its exact position at the time of the release is unknown. We're talking 1960's, where even if you have a specific target in mind the best you're hoping for is to drop a bomb within a kilometer of it.

 

[Kajigger]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961



Supposedly one of the two bombs that dropped remains unrecovered

Yeah, I heard about this before. The Guardian isn't the first.

 

[Slayven]

There is an old discovery channel doucmentry about this. Back when Discovery channel was about such things.

 

[The Librarian]

Well then. Good thing I wasn't alive and living in Cary (or Wilmington) when this thing could've possibly went off.

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

Scary shit in this book

we almost blew ourselves up a bunch of times

 

[pompidu]

Isn't it INCREDIBLY hard to successfully ignite the payload?

If the warhead goes off, it'll spread radioactive contaminant all over the place and that wouldn't be so great, but it's nowhere near the magnitude of damage if the bomb properly detonated and you get Hiroshima-esque results.

...right, physics-GAF?

I imagine the fall knocked a lot of the material loose. The detonation within has to be precise. The initial bullet explosion probably be as big as it would get. It wouldn't trigger the nuclear material within.

 

[NeonZ]

Isn't it INCREDIBLY hard to successfully ignite the payload?

If the warhead goes off, it'll spread radioactive contaminant all over the place and that wouldn't be so great, but it's nowhere near the magnitude of damage if the bomb properly detonated and you get Hiroshima-esque results.

...right, physics-GAF?

The article makes it sound like the bomb was behaving like it had been properly launched though, at least partially.

 

[Escape Goat]

Isn't it true scientists working on the Manhattan Project weren't entirely sure what would happen when they detonated an atomic bomb? That sounds pretty scary. I guess if it blew up the space time continuum they wouldn't have much time for regrets.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

There is an old discovery channel doucmentry about this. Back when Discovery channel was about such things.

Hey man, I'm looking forward to their upcoming Ghost Bombs From The Phantom Dimension documentary.

 

[DY_nasty]

Over Goldsboro? Are they sure it didn't go off?

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

The article makes it sound like the bomb was behaving like it had been properly launched though, at least partially.

There was 2. Since they know of the low voltage switch failure, Im assuming that's not the one that's missing.

 

[cdyhybrid]

I find it hard to believe they don't know where it is. They must have surveillance on every square inch of the country.

 

[pompidu]

Isn't it true scientists working on the Manhattan Project weren't entirely sure what would happen when they detonated an atomic bomb? That sounds pretty scary. I guess if it blew up the space time continuum they wouldn't have much time for regrets.

Yeah they knew, they even tested it multiple times to see the results before they hauled one over to Japan.

 

[JoeMartin]

Isn't it INCREDIBLY hard to successfully ignite the payload?

If the warhead goes off, it'll spread radioactive contaminant all over the place and that wouldn't be so great, but it's nowhere near the magnitude of damage if the bomb properly detonated and you get Hiroshima-esque results.

...right, physics-GAF?

No. Once you understand the principle behind fission and acquire the necessary materials, it's a fairly simple thing to make a nuclear warhead. You are correct in that the primer requires extremely precise implosion timing on the conventional charges, thus the temperamental nature so referenced - a nuclear warhead being blown up by an external, conventional catalytic explosive will very likely do nothing except scatter radioactive contamination. That said, the technology to properly arm and detonate a warhead isn't exactly hard either, and should one decide to accidentally arm itself it's not as tho that presents some technical hurdle to detonation that 60's technology couldn't do without human interaction.

A delivery device is the hard part. Reliable, accurate rocketry is enormously more complicated than nuclear warheads.

 

[GoldenEye 007]

I find it hard to believe they don't know where it is. They must have surveillance on every square inch of the country.

In the 60s?

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Isn't it true scientists working on the Manhattan Project weren't entirely sure what would happen when they detonated an atomic bomb? That sounds pretty scary. I guess if it blew up the space time continuum they wouldn't have much time for regrets.

Edward Teller put forward the idea that it might ignite the earth's atmosphere, but then one of the other bros did the calculations and worked out that it couldn't happen.

 

[Escape Goat]

Yeah they knew, they even tested it multiple times to see the results before they hauled one over to Japan.

Obviously I mean when they were designing it/before they tested it. Pretty sure I read that somewhere before.

 

[Ether_Snake]

I find it hard to believe they don't know where it is. They must have surveillance on every square inch of the country.

The point is that regardless of what they did do, they didn't find it.

 

[GoldenEye 007]

Edward Teller put forward the idea that it might ignite the earth's atmosphere, but then one of the other bros did the calculations and worked out that it couldn't happen.

Guy 1: "I think this will vaporize the atmosphere."

Guy 2:"Wait, let me just get my slide rule!"

 

[goomba]

And let them "get away with it"? Or you think they'd rather destroy the world (themselves included) than fess up to an accident?
.

Heh I dunno, they could have easily mistakenly blamed the soviet union in the immediate aftermarth of the bomb going off before the details of the accident even got through.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Guys, I know we've been passing some dumb laws recently but...

Oh, this happened in 1961. Or rather, didn't, as it were.

 

[A Pretty Panda]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961



Supposedly one of the two bombs that dropped remains unrecovered

I wonder what would have happened if it did go off. No way the government admits to fucking up like that, right?

 

[thefit]

Yeah I think the missing one fell in the ocean and wasnt found. Therr was and NPR programm about this about a yea ago and the last they heard the missing one might still be out there somewhere.

 

[eBay Huckster]

I find it hard to believe they don't know where it is. They must have surveillance on every square inch of the country.

If it's anything like the one that got lost off the coast of Georgia (or IS that one), it was lost before satellites were a thing.

 

[way more]

Scary shit in this book

we almost blew ourselves up a bunch of times

O shit! New Eric Schlosser book!

 

[samn]

Guy 1: "I think this will vaporize the atmosphere."

Guy 2:"Wait, let me just get my slide rule!"

Vaporize the atmosphere?

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Vaporize the atmosphere?

THE SINGULARITY IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE!

 

[DoomGyver]

I've heard of this before. It's probably a few hundred feet below the surface of some swampland, leaking into the water supply.

 

[Savitar]

One day they shall get it back.

When a tractor accidentally bangs into it while moving land.

Okay so they won't get it back so much as a huge ass hole.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Scary shit in this book

we almost blew ourselves up a bunch of times

adding it to my list.

 

[Third Strike]

I find it hard to believe they don't know where it is. They must have surveillance on every square inch of the country.

According to this article, they have a pretty good idea where it is. Also, they say that the second bomb broke into many pieces, and most of it has been accounted for. Except for the part that has uranium, which is lunged somewhere deep into the swampy land:

More alarming information about the crash was revealed later. In 1992, Congress released a summary of the Goldsboro accident indicating that, according to investigators, upon impact the parachute-less bomb had broken into several pieces, one of which was never found. The missing piece contained uranium, and it was believed that it may have struck the ground so hard that it sank deep into the soft, swampy earth. Crews excavated the surrounding farmland to a depth of fifty feet, but were unable to recover the missing piece. Two days after the accident, officials at nearby Seymour Johnson Air Force Base asked that all visitors to the crash site return any aircraft parts they may have removed. The officials claimed that these parts were needed to assess the cause of the accident, though they made no mention of the missing portion of the bomb. The Air Force eventually purchased an easement to the area surrounding the crash site, in order to prevent any land use or digging.

Source