# This day in US nuclear accidents



## mhansen2

13 December

1960 – *Naval Ordnance Test Station, San Clemente Island, California*

At approximately 7:45 PM PST, an explosion occurred in a storage bunker at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) on San Clemente Island, approximately 40 miles west of San Diego, California. Two "development type" nuclear warheads were in the bunker at the time of the explosion; the warheads contained "toxic materials" but no high explosives. One of the warheads was damaged by flames. The explosion originated in a Jet-Assisted Take Off (JATO) rocket which was being prepared for mating to one of the developmental warheads in preparation for a test. The explosion resulted in one fatality and three additional casualties; all were NOTS personnel. No AEC news release was issued.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.262-263.

For the source material, go here:

index.htm


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## JGalt

Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet.


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## mhansen2

14-31 December

No reported incidents


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## mhansen2

Unknown date

1952 – B-50 / Alaska 

Although checklists were followed and procedures approved by an on-board AEC representative, a nuclear weapon was unintentionally jettisoned from a B-50 when the release shackle became unlocked and the bomb fell through the bomb bay doors onto the
Alaskan tundra. (No other details currently available.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.239.


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## mhansen2

4 January

1958 – Railway Accident / Hamburg, New York

A derailment accident occurred on the Nickel Plate Road near Hamburg, New York approximately fifteen miles south of Buffalo at 4:50 AM EST. Thirty-two cars of a 78-car train were derailed behind the engine. No one was injured or killed; early assessment indicated that the accident was caused by a broken axle or defective junction box on the second car behind the engine. The AEC shipment was enroute from the manufacturing facility at Burlington, Iowa; it included assembled and loaded bomb casings, which were undamaged.

An early news release about the accident quoted a railroad employee as saying without official authorization that the shipment contained enough explosives to "blow up the western end of New York State." In order to counter this statement, the AEC issued a news release that stated: "The Commission has been advised of a wreck near Buffalo, New York of a freight train which carried a routine AEC classified shipment. The shipment included a quantity of non-nuclear conventional explosive. There was no danger of a nuclear detonation. The shipment was unharmed and will shortly be on its way again." The entire shipment left Buffalo at 10:00 AM on January 5, en route to its original destination. (Not a "Broken Arrow" accident.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.245-246


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## mhansen2

5 - 8 January

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

9 January

1956 – B-36 / Kirtland AFB

A February 1991 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report lists an incident involving a B-36 carrying one or more nuclear weapons at Kirtland AFB on this date. No further details are currently available.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.240


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## mhansen2

11 January

1985 - PERSHING II MRBM / Heilbronn, West Germany

During the assembly of a PERSHING II missile, the motor caught fire, and exploded, killing three people.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.292.


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## mhansen2

12 January

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

13 January

1964 - B-52 / Near Cumberland, Maryland 

A B-52D was enroute from Westover AFB, near Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, to its home base at Turner AFB, near Albany, Georgia after having concluded an airborne CHROME DOME alert mission on January 12. The plane crashed at about 3:00 AM approximately 17 miles SW of Cumberland, Maryland in a remote, thickly wooded uninhabited area near Lonaconing, Maryland. The aircraft was carrying two unarmed war reserve weapons, both in tactical ferry configuration, with no mechanical or electrical connections made to the aircraft and safing switches in the "safe" position to preclude arming.

Before the crash, the pilot had requested a change in flight altitude because of severe air turbulence at 29,500 feet. The aircraft was cleared to climb to 33,000 feet; during the climb, the B-52 encountered violent air turbulence around 31,000 feet and the airframe structure failed (a two-day-long driving snowstorm was in progress and winds up to 145 knots at 30,000 feet had been reported in the vicinity of Washington, D.C.). The vertical fin separated from the bomber, striking the left horizontal stabilizer which broke off the aircraft and caused the tail section to tear loose. (By January 1964, at least four other B-52s had lost their tail sections in turbulence.) Of the five aircrewmen aboard the bomber, only the pilot and copilot survived after ejecting.

The tail gunner and navigator ejected successfully but died of exposure to sub-zero temperatures after reaching the ground alive. The radar navigator did not eject and died in the crash. The B-52 apparently disintegrated upon impact and cut a 100-foot wide by 100-yard long swath through a wooded area; only one engine remained recognizably intact. The crash site was an isolated mountainous and densely wooded area on the western side of Big Savage Mountain; 8 to 14 inches of new snow covered the aircraft wreckage which was scattered over an area of approximately 100 square yards. The aircraft's tail section was found 15 miles away.

Weather during recovery and cleanup operations included extreme cold (on the order of 0 to -10 F), nearly four feet of snow, and gusty winds. Two unarmed weapons remained aboard the aircraft until it crashed and were relatively intact, although heavily damaged, after impact near the center of the wreckage field; they were found approximately 20 to 25 yards apart in two feet of snow. There was no HE explosion nor was there any radiation hazard. The nearest inhabited residence was between one-half mile to one mile from the crash site.

The debris pattern indicated that the weapons, found near the center of the wreckage, remained secured to the aircraft until impact. The basic assembly of weapon number one cracked in three places, with one crack circumscribing three-quarters of the bomb casing circumference. The firing set, including detonator cables and two firing set cables, had been secured to the weapon by eight retaining bolts; the firing set was found about 15 feet from the basic assembly. The X-unit, the high-voltage source for the detonators, was sheared off the primary, but its thermal batteries did not fire. The rear case sections of both weapons had broken off and been consumed by the ensuing fuel fire after impact.

Weapon number two was less severely damaged: the thermal batteries did not fire, and there was no apparent damage to components within the basic assembly. Pullout wires to the fuzing system were broken, but the electrical system safing switch remained in the "safe" position.

The nuclear portions (basic assemblies) of both weapons were evacuated by air from Cumberland via an Air Force C-124 to Kelly AFB near San Antonio, Texas and were turned over to the AEC's Medina Modification Center where they were disassembled beginning on January 24, 1964. Postmortem examinations at Medina and later at Sandia verified that none of the weapon components were activated by the crash.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.273-274.


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## mhansen2

14 - 15 January

No reported incidents


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## mhansen2

16 January

1961 – F-100D / United Kingdom airbase 

At 9:50 AM local time, a USAF F-100D on quick reaction alert at an airbase in the United Kingdom, was involved in a fire. During engine run-up, the underwing fuel tanks were accidentally ejected and spilled fuel ignited. A nuclear weapon mounted on the aircraft's centerline pylon was scorched and blistered before the flames were extinguished by the flight line fire department. There were no personnel injuries, and the weapon was replaced.

This accident was very similar to that involving an F-100 at a Pacific base on January 18, 1959. As a result of these incidents, wing fuel tank ejection cartridges were removed before engine run-ups and fire trucks stood by in front of alert hangars in case of fire.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.263.


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## mhansen2

17 January

1966 - B-52 / Palomares, Spain

At 9:17 AM local time, a B-52G returning to Seymour Johnson AFB near Goldsboro North Carolina and a KC-135 tanker from an airbase at Moron, near Sevilla in southwestern Spain, collided during a routine high altitude air refueling operation in the "Saddle Rock" refueling area at about 31,000 feet as the planes flew westward over the Mediterranean Sea, just off the coast of Spain near Palomares, about 245 miles south of Madrid, when the B-52 overran the fueling boom on the KC-135.

The fueling boom penetrated the bomber's fuselage just aft of the wing trailing edge, in effect breaking the aircraft’s back, and causing the plane to pitch down and left and split apart. Both aircraft exploded and disintegrated and crashed, spreading about 250 tons of wreckage over a wide area. All four tanker crewmen died and four of seven B-52 crewmembers survived after ejecting and parachuting to safety. The B-52 radar navigator was burned by a fireball after he ejected; the navigator ejected at low altitude and was killed on impact with the ground. The B-52 gunner and electronic warfare officer did not eject and were killed in the crash.

The B-52 was on a standard SAC airborne alert mission and was carrying four unarmed MK 28FI nuclear weapons, each with a yield of 1.1 MT; the bombs were torn violently from the plane four to five seconds after the bomber began to disintegrate.

Guide and retardation parachutes deployed fully or partially on two of the bombs. Those without chutes continued on a ballistic trajectory onto the shore and a few miles inland. Bombs with deployed parachutes were blown by high 60 MPH winds to the northeast.

Bomb #1 landed relatively intact, and still attached to its release rack mechanism, in a steep bank of soft earth near the Almanzora riverbed onshore, having been slowed by a small 16-foot diameter ribbon chute, and was found eight hours after the crash when it was rendered safe. The weapon had a nine-inch gash in its nose and three of its four tail fins were missing.

Bomb #2, found the following morning, fell unretarded two miles farther inland and underwent a one-point detonation of its primary which ruptured the weapon and blew plutonium and plutonium oxide into the air and onto the ground. The explosion dug a crater about six feet deep and 20 feet in diameter; parts of the weapon were blown as far as 100 yards. The secondary was intact, as was the boost tritium gas reservoir found about 25 feet from the crater. The broken afterbody and parachute pack were found about 100 yards away.

Bomb #3 landed violently after being slowed slightly by a partially-deployed ribbon chute and also underwent a one-point explosion, dispersing uranium, plutonium and plutonium oxide; it was found near a retaining wall on a small farm midway between #1 and #2 on the outskirts of Palomares early in the morning after the crash. Parts of bomb #3, including its boost tritium gas reservoir, were blown 500 yards. Quantities of unburned HE were recovered. The secondary was found in a crater which measured about 10 feet in diameter and three feet deep. The afterbody was fairly intact with the main chute still inside.

Bomb #4, whose retardation parachutes deployed fully, was blown by high winds aloft for about eight miles until it fell into the Mediterranean Sea. After entering the water, the weapon, still suspended from its parachute, descended to a depth of 2,160 feet (355 fathoms), riding the prevailing currents. The bomb touched down on the rim of an underwater ridge and was apparently dragged over the edge by current forces on the chute, and subsequently slid into a deep submarine canyon.

From there it continued its descent to a depth of 2,550 feet (425 fathoms), leaving a smooth furrow (the furrow was discovered on March 1 and ultimately led to discovery of the weapon on the seafloor).

The bomb was salvaged intact on April 7 from a depth of 2,850 feet 12 miles off Palomares (the weapon had fallen into deeper water after being accidentally dropped during an earlier recovery attempt). The exterior of the bomb was in good shape, except for two gashes approximately 40 inches long at the bottom of the tail ballistic section and a severely dented nose section. Water had infiltrated all portions of the weapon, including the pressurized “physics package” warhead section, and mud was found inside the fuse and tail sections. All parachutes except the 30 inch stabilization chute had deployed. This weapon was displayed for the press to verify its recovery (this was the first time that a U.S. hydrogen weapon had been shown publicly). This weapon is now also on display at the National Atomic Museum.

None of the village's 1,540 inhabitants were immediately injured seriously by either the falling bombs or aircraft wreckage. A long narrow area slightly over one-half mile long and one-sixteenth of a mile wide was contaminated by plutonium; 20 clean-up workers were exposed to plutonium and U-235.

Approximately 1,400 tons of slightly contaminated soil and vegetation from a 558 acre area were removed to the continental U.S. and buried at the Savannah River AEC facility. Aircraft wreckage was either returned to the U.S. or dumped into deep, remote Atlantic Ocean waters. Representatives of the Spanish atomic energy commission monitored the cleanup operation. The accident resulted in the Spanish government withdrawing permission for overflights of its territory by nuclear-armed aircraft. The Air Force denied for three days after the accident that nuclear weapons were involved.

All uncontaminated aircraft wreckage was gathered and loaded aboard a barge and dumped into deep remote Atlantic Ocean waters by late February 1966.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.278-283.


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## mhansen2

18 January

1959 – F-100 / Itazuke AB, Japan

At about 11:55 AM local time, the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing aircraft was parked on a revetted hardstand in ground alert configuration. The external load consisted of a MK 7 nuclear weapon on the left wing intermediate station, one 275 gallon drop tank on the right wing intermediate station, and one 200 gallon drop tank each on the left and right wing inboard stations. When the aircraft's engine starter button was depressed during a practice alert early in the morning, an explosion and fire occurred when the three external fuel tanks inadvertently jettisoned and the left wing 200 gallon tank ruptured and caught fire; the fire spread to the other two tanks.

The weapon was exposed to constant heat and intermittent flames from the burning fuel, resulting in the forward section of the bomb either melting or falling off, exposing fuzing components and the weapon’s nickel-cadmium batteries. The lower battery had shorted out. The upper battery was warped and its cables had burned through; however, the battery was still charged. Portions of the center section bottom were melted away, exposing detonators around the warhead sphere. Several of these detonators were cracked and scorched; insulation on several detonator lead cables was softened but intact. Pull-out wires were in place and the arm-safe switch was on “safe.”

Personnel in the aircraft's revetment and in adjacent revetments were evacuated as quickly as possible. Fire trucks at the scene put out the fire with foam and water in about seven minutes. The nuclear capsule for the bomb was not in the vicinity of the aircraft and was not involved in the accident. Desiccant bags in the aft end of the weapon caught fire and were burned; in addition, the radome at the front end of the bomb burned and a few detonator cables were scorched. The weapon’s HE appeared intact upon examination. There were no cleanup or nuclear contamination problems. The damaged weapon was returned to the U.S. for refit and further examination. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.253


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## mhansen2

19 January

1961 – / B-52 / Monticello, Utah 

A B-52B from Biggs AFB near El Paso, Texas carrying one or more nuclear weapons exploded in midair about 10 miles north of Monticello, Idaho at about 6:19 PM MST. The plane carried seven crewmen, of whom five were killed and two, the copilot and navigator, ejected and parachuted safely from the plane. The B-52 had left Biggs at about 5:15 PM for a routine "round-robin" training mission of eight hours duration. When near Monticello on its way to Bismarck, North Dakota, the aircraft was at an altitude of 36,000 feet and was estimated to have been about 23 miles east of its intended course (the autopilot had been disengaged earlier because of turbulence).

At about 6:18, the bomber began climbing from 36,000 to 40,000 feet; soon afterwards, the plane experienced a violent bump or lurch that was followed by a descending right roll of about 410 degrees, a short period of wings-level, nose-down flight, and then a violent spin. The aircraft descended rapidly, and broke into several pieces which landed within an area two miles wide by 11 1/2 miles long at an elevation of 7,000 feet. Observers on the ground saw a left-wing engine in flames; this was soon followed by a violent mid-air explosion. Parts of the aircraft were found as far as two miles from the main wreckage field.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.263.


1966 – TERRIER missile / Mayport Naval Station, Jacksonville, Florida 

A W-45 warhead separated from a TERRIER surface-to-air missile while the rocket was being loaded aboard the U.S.S. LUCE (DLG-7) and fell eight feet. The warhead was dented but unbreached; there were no personnel casualties. (Not a "Broken Arrow" incident.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.284.


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## mhansen2

20 January

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

21 January

1968 - B-52 / Thule, Greenland

At 9:29 AM EST, a B-52G from Plattsburgh AFB, New York, departed for a 24-hour airborne alert mission. The aircraft crashed and burned at about 3:40 PM EST just over seven miles southwest of the runway at Thule AFB, Greenland. The B-52 was approaching the base for an emergency landing following the ignition of an on-board fire of undetermined origin in the lower crew compartment.

The aircraft commander declared an emergency about 42 miles from Thule AFB, and the plane passed over the base heading north; it made a 180 degree turn before crashing. All seven crewmen bailed out at altitudes between 8,000 and 9,000 feet about four miles from the base after smoke filled the cockpit and all aircraft power was lost. The pilot, copilot, radar navigator, electronic warfare officer, gunner, and navigator survived; two navigators were injured. A second pilot was killed while bailing out.

The B-52 plunged toward the ice below at an angle of about 15 degrees and began to disintegrate in midair and exploded on impact. The bomber carried four unarmed MK 28 nuclear weapons; the bombs were still inside the aircraft at impact and the HE in the primaries in all four detonated, blasting plutonium and uranium into the burning aircraft wreckage. The plane crashed at an estimated 560 MPH: the eight jet engines were found two to two-and-a-half miles from the point of impact. Most bomb fragments were subsequently destroyed by a fire fed by 35,000 gallons of jet fuel aboard the plane; this fire burned for at least 20 minutes, with a 2,200-foot long smoke plume reaching 2,400 feet, and covered an area 1,000 to 2,000 feet wide. A total of six kilograms (13.2 lbs.) of plutonium was involved in the crash. 

Plutonium oxide particles were blasted into bomb and aircraft debris, entrained and carried forward in splashing jet fuel before it detonated, blown into the ice at the point of impact, and carried aloft and downwind for several hundred miles by the smoke from the burning fuel. Some radioactive contamination occurred in the area of the crash, which was on 30- to 48-inch thick snow-covered sea ice over North Star Bay on Bylot Sound atop 625 feet of water; the heat of the fire melted the ice which later froze, trapping bits of metal, carbon, unburned jet fuel, tritium, uranium-235, and plutonium in an area about a half mile long and 650 feet wide.

Most plutonium was recovered in an area about 110 yards wide by 760 yards long where it attached itself to surface ice and snow. Pieces of bombs and aircraft wreckage were found two to four miles beyond the leading edge of the blackened area. Search operations were hindered by adverse weather, continuous darkness, and -23 F ambient temperatures: two storms characterized by high winds dispersed plutonium over the ice and snow-covered land and seascapes. The largest portions of weapons recovered included five 64-foot and 16-foot diameter parachutes, four tritium reservoirs, and pieces of three primaries, secondaries, and weapon casings. Analysis by the AEC of secondary wreckage accounted for 85% of the uranium and 94%, by weight, of three secondaries; one secondary was recovered nearly intact and parts of at least one other were found two and-a-half miles from the crash site. (By February 23, the fourth weapon secondary was still missing; nonetheless, the Air Force announced publicly that "significant portions of all four weapons were recovered.") A small amount of aircraft wreckage, including possibly one complete MK 28 secondary assembly, apparently melted through the ice and settled on the sea floor. (No part of the plane’s tail had been found by February 2.) Crewmen aboard a small submersible named the STAR III identified but did not retrieve weapon pieces from the bottom of Bylot Sound in late August 1968.

Approximately 237,000 cubic feet (10,500 tons) of contaminated ice, snow, water, and crash debris mixed with borax to minimize potential criticality problems were removed from a three-square mile, 26-acre area to the continental U.S. and buried at the Savannah River AEC facility during the course of an eight-month long cleanup operation. Recovered aircraft debris was shipped to Oak Ridge for burial.

Although an unknown amount of contamination was dispersed by the crash, environmental sampling showed normal readings in the area after the cleanup was completed. Representatives of the Danish government monitored the cleanup operations. Following this accident, airborne alert flights by nuclear-armed SAC bombers, first started in 1958, were permanently halted. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.285-287.


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## mhansen2

22 - 23 January

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

21 January addendum

50 years ago, a U.S. military jet crashed in Greenland – with 4 nuclear bombs on board


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## mhansen2

24 January

1961 – B-52 / Goldsboro, North Carolina 

During a B-52G airborne alert mission 15 miles north of Seymour Johnson AFB, a fire began as a result of a major leak in a wing fuel cell which had caused the loss of 37,000 lbs. of fuel in two minutes. The fire and resultant explosion caused structural failure of the aircraft's right wing at an altitude of 8,000 feet after the crew had bailed out. This in turn resulted in two unarmed MK 39 weapons without nuclear capsules separating from the bomber during airframe breakup between 10,000 and 2,000 feet. The two bombs fell to earth near Goldsboro, North Carolina, about one mile from the crash site and 13 miles from Seymour Johnson. Five of the eight B-52 crew members survived. Wreckage of the aircraft was scattered over a wide area of approximately two square miles near Faro, North Carolina.

During the breakup of the airframe, three of four arming safety devices on one bomb were actuated, including arming wires pulled out, the pulse generator actuated, the explosive actuator fired, a timer run down, all contacts of the differential pressure switch closed, and the low and high voltage thermal batteries actuated. The arm-safe remained in a “safe” position and the rotary safing switch was not operated. The X-unit was not charged, nor was tritium injected into the pit.

These actions resulted in the bomb’s warhead going through nearly all of its arming sequence, including 100-foot diameter retardation parachute deployment, activation of internal timing mechanisms, development of high voltage in the firing system, etc. However, since the fourth arming device — the pilot’s arm/safe switch — was not activated, the warhead did not complete its arming sequence. This MK 39 descended by parachute and consequently suffered only minor damage when it impacted the ground, penetrating about 18 inches and deforming the frangible bomb casing nose assembly. The weapon remained in an upright position with its parachute hanging in a tree about a mile from the main aircraft wreckage field.

The second MK 39 bomb fell free and broke apart upon impact with the sandy clay earth about 500 yards from the main aircraft wreckage and three-quarters of a mile from the impact point of the first bomb. This weapon made a visible surface crater about eight feet in diameter and six feet deep. No explosion occurred, although this weapon was also partially armed upon release from the aircraft and further by closure of an arming switch upon impact. A high voltage switch was not closed, so this bomb also did not arm completely. This weapon’s fuzing and firing sequence underwent all of the actions of the first bomb, with the exception that the timer ran for only 12 to 15 seconds; only two contacts of the differential pressure switch closed; the high voltage thermal battery was not actuated; and the rotary safing switch was destroyed on impact. The nose crystals in both weapons, used for salvage fuzing, were crushed.

Upon impact, both the primary and secondary of the free-falling bomb smashed through the frangible nose of the weapon and penetrated farther into the waterlogged farmland. The tail of the bomb was located approximately 22 feet below ground surface.

Excavation began immediately after the crash, around 1:30 PM on January 24, but was hindered by freezing weather, water in the hole, and the presence of unexploded HE.  During the remainder of January 24, manual and mechanical digging reached a depth of eight feet, where a portion of the main body section and pieces of the nose section were found.

The following day, at a depth of 12 feet, the top of the parachute pack was exposed. Adverse weather and a rising water table hindered recovery operations on January 26; however, digging reached 15 feet where the parachute pack, a section of the nose, and pieces of the primary and HE were recovered.

By January 28, digging had reached a depth of 18 feet and detonators, two arm/safe switches, trajectory arming device, more pieces of HE and the primary, and a tritium bottle were found. One of the arm/safe switches was found in the “armed” position.

The remainder of the primary and HE was recovered at a depth of 20 feet on January 29; the pit was found intact the following day. The crater was now 22 feet deep, 50 feet wide, and 70 feet long.

By February 7, digging had resulted in the excavation of a crater 42 feet deep and 200 feet in diameter. Recovery operations were canceled at this time because of cave-ins, freezing weather, equipment limitations, and rising water. The recovered bomb parts, including an undamaged tritium reservoir and the weapon’s afterbody, were taken to the AEC's Medina Base near San Antonio, Texas.

Uncontrollable flooding of the crater caused by a high local water table made further excavation impractical despite 14 pumps removing a combined total of 6,000 gallons of water per hour and further retrieval work was halted on May 25. Calculations based on the weight and configuration of the secondary, impact angle and velocity, and soil composition placed the missing bomb component at a depth of 180+10 feet. The probable minimum estimated cost of recovery was in the neighborhood of $500,000.

The Air Force subsequently purchased an easement to prevent digging in the vicinity of the point of impact. The missing weapon secondary was never located. (During a later accident, LASL told the Air Force that thermonuclear weapon secondaries were "virtually indestructible.") There was no detectable radiation in the area. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.264-266.


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## mhansen2

25 - 30 January

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

31 January

1958 – B-47 / Sidi Slimane, French Morocco ("SAC REFLEX Base")

A B-47 with one weapon in full strike configuration with safing pins installed in the pullout switch, arm/safe switch safed, baros set, and U-2 rack unlocked, was making a simulated takeoff during an exercise alert. When the aircraft reached a taxi speed of approximately 30 knots on the runway, the left rear wheel casting failed. The aircraft’s tail struck the runway; the plane broke in two and a fuel tank ruptured, spilling JP fuel over the weapon and surrounding area.

The aircraft caught fire and burned for seven hours; crash trucks arrived within three minutes and sprayed foam over the wreckage. Firemen fought the fire for the allotted ten minutes fire-fighting time for HE contents of the weapon, then evacuated the airbase in the erroneous belief that a nuclear explosion was imminent. The HE in the bomb did not detonate, but there were varying levels of alpha particle contamination in the immediate area of the crash. Rescue crews bulldozed wreckage to the side of runway, leaving weapon parts exposed. After the wreckage and the asphalt runway paving beneath it were removed and the runway washed down, no contamination was detected; however, the wreckage was highly contaminated by plutonium.

The intensive heat of the aircraft fire melted the capsule and a large part of the weapon. A portion of the squash (weapon secondary) was found intact and fissionable capsule material was detected in slabs of other molten metals. The fire created a slab of slag material weighing approximately 8,000 lbs.; this slab was approximately six to eight feet wide and 12 to 15 feet long with a thickness of 10 to 12 inches. Weapon components and miscellaneous aircraft components were intermingled within the slab. Heavily contaminated pieces of this slab were broken out with jackhammers and segregated and packaged into sealed cans.

All residue not identified as aircraft parts was moved by truck to an ammunition storage area. The revetment where debris packaging took place was leveled by a bulldozer and all remaining debris was covered by three feet of dirt. One fire truck and one fireman's clothing showed slight alpha contamination until washed. A large number of people and vehicles were contaminated with plutonium and smoke-carried fallout drifted as far as 40 miles, contaminating a local naval base. Fallout was also detected at other locations in Morocco even further away.

Subsequent inspection of the weapon involved in this incident revealed that the afterbody and approximately one-half of the warhead case were melted and unrecognizable; there was evidence of very high gamma ray and alpha particle radiation from remnants of the melted afterbody. Inspection of the weapon sling and U-2 lock indicated that the weapon had not separated from its rack. Remains of the weapon's detonators showed that they, as well as the HE, had burned but had not detonated. The residue of the weapon and capsule was returned to the U.S. on February 27 where it was subsequently buried.

Following the accident, exercise alerts were temporarily suspended and B-47 wheels were checked for defects.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.246-247.


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## fncceo

Jan 29, 1964.


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## mhansen2

Unknown date in February

1958 

During February 1958, an aircraft crashed “on base” while carrying a MK 7 training weapon. Aircraft wreckage was mingled with weapon parts over an area approximately 250 feet wide by 0.25 miles long. The aircraft impacted in a relatively flat attitude, so the weapon did not penetrate the ground but instead tore loose from the aircraft. The largest piece of the weapon recovered was a part of the tail section. Separation of weapon skin and components from aircraft wreckage was difficult; several parts were partially covered by drifting sands.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.248.


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## mhansen2

1 - 4 February

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

5 February

1958 – B-47 / Savannah River, Georgia

A B-47 carrying an unarmed MK 15 Mod 0 War Reserve weapon was on a unit simulated combat mission maneuver that originated at Homestead AFB, Florida. While near Sylvania, Georgia the aircraft had a mid-air collision at an altitude of 30,000 feet with an F-86 aircraft involved in a simulated attack at approximately 2:00 AM. Following the collision, the B-47 made three attempts to land at Hunter AFB, near Savannah, with the weapon aboard. The F-86 crashed after its pilot ejected safely.

Because of damage sustained by the bomber, its airspeed could not be reduced enough to insure a safe landing and the crew decided to jettison the bomb rather than expose Hunter AFB to the possibility of an HE detonation. A nuclear explosion was impossible because the nuclear capsule was not installed in the weapon; however, the bomb contained at least 400 lbs. of HE around its primary.

The weapon was jettisoned into water five miles southeast of the mouth of the Savannah River (Georgia) in Wassaw Sound off Tybee Beach in Chatham county. The precise weapon impact point was unknown; however, the best estimate was at a position of 31D 54M 15S N, 80D 54M 45S W, approximately 15 statute miles east-southeast of Hunter AFB. The bomb was dropped from an altitude of approximately 7,200 feet at an airspeed of 180  to 190 knots; no detonation occurred and the bomb was assumed to have shattered on impact. The river was approximately 100 feet deep where the weapon landed.

After jettisoning the weapon, the B-47 landed safely at Hunter AFB. During a subsequent nine-week period, a three square mile area, with water depths ranging from 6 to 30 feet, was searched by at least 11 Navy and Coast Guard boats and ships, including a ship with divers and underwater demolition team technicians using galvanic drag and hand-held sonar devices. The weapon was not found and the search was terminated on April 16, 1958. This accident, including the weapon loss, was released to the press.

The bomb was considered irretrievably lost, either buried under mud on the seabed or disintegrated on impact. On June 10, 1958, the Department of Defense requested the AEC to transfer a new weapon to stockpile to replace the lost bomb. Since there was a possibility of accidental discovery of the unrecovered portion of the bomb through dredging or construction in the probable impact area, DOD monitored all activities in the vicinity of the lost bomb.

During the summer of 2000, acting at the request of a local congressman, the Air Force, DOE, and the Navy re-examined the possibility of attempting to retrieve the lost bomb. After examining arguments both in favor of and opposing the effort, the Air Force concluded that the bomb — if still intact — was probably buried at a depth of five to 15 feet in the riverbed silt and that no recovery should be attempted.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.248-249.


----------



## mhansen2

6 - 7 February

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

8 February

1958 - B-52 / Ellsworth AFB, near Rapid City, South Dakota

A ground accident occurred at Ellsworth when a nuclear weapon was inadvertently dropped from a B-52D bomber parked at a pad and ready to be unloaded. Preliminary reports indicated that an airman erred and pulled the manual release handle which released the weapon from the bomb bay and through the unopened bomb bay doors.

Damage to the weapon included a dented afterbody, two smashed fins, and a displaced secondary. There was no capsule aboard the aircraft. The bomb was loaded aboard a trailer and removed to a weapons maintenance depot at Rushmore AFB, South Dakota. The damaged weapon was later exchanged for an operational weapon from stockpile.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.249.


----------



## mhansen2

9 February

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

10 February

1960 – Railroad train / AEC storage site, Clarksville, Tennessee 

At 10:45 AM EST, while being switched at a railroad siding, five ATMX cars carrying MK 31 weapons broke loose, ran down a 2% grade, and hit a bumper. One car was derailed but remained upright. There was no damage to the weapons. No news release was issued. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.258.


----------



## mhansen2

11 February

1950 - Beech D-18 / Albuquerque, New Mexico

A twin-engine Beechcraft D-18 cargo air service aircraft flying from Dayton, Ohio to Albuquerque crashed four miles west of West Mesa Airport with a pilot and two AEC security guards aboard. The plane was making an approach to a landing strip when it encountered a cloud and broke off the approach. While circling around the mesa atop which the airstrip was located, the plane hit a steep slope and crashed in an upright position.

The plane was completely demolished by the ensuing impact and fire, killing all three men aboard. The classified cargo of 792 HE detonator units in 22 boxes was destroyed and was salvaged from the wreckage. Since there was no evidence of sabotage, and since none of the detonators appeared to be missing, the incident was not reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.235.


----------



## mhansen2

12 February

No reported incidents.


----------



## kaz

mhansen2 said:


> 13 December
> 
> 1960 – *Naval Ordnance Test Station, San Clemente Island, California*
> 
> At approximately 7:45 PM PST, an explosion occurred in a storage bunker at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) on San Clemente Island, approximately 40 miles west of San Diego, California. Two "development type" nuclear warheads were in the bunker at the time of the explosion; the warheads contained "toxic materials" but no high explosives. One of the warheads was damaged by flames. The explosion originated in a Jet-Assisted Take Off (JATO) rocket which was being prepared for mating to one of the developmental warheads in preparation for a test. The explosion resulted in one fatality and three additional casualties; all were NOTS personnel. No AEC news release was issued.
> 
> Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.262-263.
> 
> For the source material, go here:
> 
> index.htm



So you think that threats to America should be treated by the standard of 1960?  Of course you do, Hugo Chavez ...


----------



## mhansen2

kaz said:


> So you think that threats to America should be treated by the standard of 1960?  Of course you do, Hugo Chavez ...


I don't know what you're talking about.


----------



## mhansen2

13 February

1950 – B-36B / Pacific Ocean, off British Columbia coast

A B-36B (44-92075) was en route from Eielson AFB near Fairbanks, Alaska, to Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, Texas on a simulated night high-altitude combat profile mission (target: San Francisco) with a simulated combat load; a MK 4 nuclear weapon aboard the aircraft had a dummy capsule installed. After about six hours of flight, the aircraft's numbers 1, 2, and 5 engines caught fire from severe carburetor chamber icing which caused back-firing. The burning engines were feathered and shut down at an altitude of 12,000 feet.

Severe rime icing conditions complicated the emergency and level flight and constant altitude could not be maintained. Following instructions from an Air Force base, the aircraft headed out over the Pacific Ocean, armed the weapon, and dropped it from 8,000 feet. The bomb's high explosives detonated at an altitude of 3,800 feet, resulting in a bright flash followed by sound and shock waves.

The aircraft was then flown east over Princess Royal Island, 120 miles southeast of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and 50 miles from the town of Bella Bella, on Hunter Island to the south, where the sixteen crewmen and one passenger bailed out at an altitude of 5,000 feet while the aircraft was on a heading of 165 degrees and losing altitude at a rate of 100 feet per minute.

Twelve aircrewmen were eventually rescued  from Princess Royal Island and five persons were still missing by May 1951. An accompanying B-36 continued onto Carswell AFB. At the time of the accident, no mention was made of the nature of the aircraft's bomb load.

The aircraft wreckage was not located until September 1953, when it was found at an altitude of 6,000 feet in the Skeena Mountains east of Meziadin Lake on the east side of the Nass River valley east of the town of Stewart in northwestern British Columbia (crash site coordinates were 128D 32M W, 56D 3M N).

After the crew bailed out, the aircraft apparently gained altitude, turned nearly 180 degrees, flew north for nearly three hours (a continuous radio signal from the aircraft was detected at Eielson AFB), covered a distance of 210 miles over terrain 6,000 to 8,000 feet high, and finally crashed at an altitude of 6,000 feet. After a salvage team recovered some items, the crash site was “erased” with explosives, although substantial wreckage remained even as recently as 1998.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.235.


----------



## mhansen2

14 February

1974 - FB-111 / Plattsburgh AFB, New York

At approximately 11:00 AM, the nose landing gear of a USAF FB-111 collapsed as the aircraft was undergoing an engine run-up during a normal alert exercise. The aircraft was loaded with two SRAM air-to-surface missiles and two nuclear bombs. There was no damage to the weapons and they were unloaded without incident.

Normal emergency precautions were taken on and around the airbase. A portion of a nearby public highway was closed; a "fuel spill" was given as the reason for the closure.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.289.


----------



## mhansen2

15 - 21 February

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

22 February

1970 - PERSHING IA missile / Boettingen, West Germany 

On the morning of February 22, an Army missile crew was instructed to replace a bent heat shield covering the guidance and control section splice band on a PERSHING IA missile at a Combat Alert Status site near Boettingen, West Germany in Baden-Wurttemberg province near Stuttgart. A crewman removed the explosive bolt detonating cable from the splice band joining the guidance and control section to the missile warhead section. He then loosened the bolt to which the detonator cable was connected, not realizing that this bolt also held the splice band together.

The loosened bolt allowed separator springs to eject the warhead section forward from the guidance and control sections; the warhead section fell about three feet and struck a work platform on the Improved Erector Launcher (IEL), slid off the platform, and then fell another six feet to the ground (pavement). The warhead section landed on its nose, rolled over and came to rest on its top. The W-50 warhead did not burn or detonate.

The crewman was working alone in violation of the two-man rule requiring no fewer than two persons around nuclear weapons and had not notified his supervisors of his intentions.

Approximately one-half inch of the missile nose cone was broken off; another two inches were gouged. Ablative material on the warhead section was deeply scraped for a distance of nine inches. The launch pad was evacuated and the area sealed off. Explosive bolts on the missile were disconnected and all power to the pad was cut off. Personnel working around the warhead at the time of the incident took decontamination measures and the warhead was later disarmed and replaced. There was no radioactive contamination and no damage other than that to the warhead section. The accident was originally reported as a "Broken Arrow" incident and was later downgraded to a "Bent Spear" incident. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.289.


----------



## mhansen2

23 February

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

24 February

1956 – C-124 / Over the North Atlantic

Restricted data cargo was jettisoned from a C-124 over the North Atlantic, including nuclear weapon firing and maintenance sets. The cargo was dropped from an altitude of 8,000 to 9,000 feet. The plane was enroute from Goose Bay, Labrador to Upper Heyford in the United Kingdom when it lost power in its number one and four engines. The Air Force assumed that the cargo packaging ruptured and sank after impact with the sea.  Although the impact area was searched, nothing was recovered.

On its return flight to the U.S. on March 2, the aircraft crashed in the Atlantic approximately 225 nautical miles southwest of Keflavik, Iceland. The aircraft and crew were lost in 3,000 feet of water.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.240.


----------



## mhansen2

25 - 27 February

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

28 February

1958

B-47 / Greenham Common airbase, England

At approximately 4:25 PM, a B-47 experienced engine trouble on takeoff and jettisoned two full 1,700 gallon wingtip fuel tanks from an altitude of 8,000 feet. One or both of the falling tanks missed a designated safe impact area and exploded 65 feet behind a parked B-47 loaded with nuclear weapons. The resulting fire burned for 16 hours, exploding the HE in at least one weapon, destroying the parked bomber, killing two people and injuring eight, and caused the release of radioactive material, including finely powdered uranium and plutonium oxides, at least 10 to 20 grams of which were found off-base. An adjacent hangar was also severely damaged, and other planes nearby had to be hosed down to prevent their ignition by the intense heat, approximately of the fire, fueled by jet propellant and magnesium in the B-47. The fire was allowed to burn itself out and was still smoldering several days later.

At least one airman near the parked B-47 died, and a number of other service personnel were killed and injured. The population of the town of Newbury, the closest downwind village, later suffered a cluster of leukemia cases.

The Air Force has never officially admitted that nuclear weapons were involved in this accident. The USAF and the British Ministry of Defense had agreed in 1956 to deny that nuclear weapons were involved in any accident with an American nuclear bomber stationed in England. In 1985, the British government stated that the accident merely involved a parked B-47 that was struck by a taxiing B-47 on a training exercise, and omitted any mention of an ensuing fire.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.247.

(Precise date provided by World Information Service on Energy, WISE)
1958 accident at Greenham Common covered up | Wise International


----------



## mhansen2

1 March

1954

Technically not an accident, just a major miscalculation

Shot Bravo, Operation Castle

Bikini Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands (then Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands)  Some might claim this was not a true accident, but during the Castle Bravo test of the first deployable hydrogen bomb, a miscalculation resulted in the explosion being over twice as large as predicted, with a total explosive force of 15 megatons of TNT (63 PJ). Of the total yield, 10 Mt (42 PJ) were from fission of the natural uranium tamper, but those fission reactions were quite dirty, producing a large amount of fallout. Combined with the much larger than expected yield and an unanticipated wind shift, radioactive fallout spread into unexpected areas. A Japanese fishing boat, the _Daigo Fukuryu Maru/Lucky Dragon_, came into contact with the fallout, which caused many of the crew to become ill, with one fatality. The fallout spread eastward onto the inhabited Rongelapand Rongerik Atolls. These islands were not evacuated before the explosion due to the financial cost involved, but many of the Marshall Islands natives have since suffered from radiation burns and radioactive dusting and also similar fates as the Japanese fishermen and have received little, if any, compensation from the federal government. The test resulted in an international uproar and reignited Japanese concerns about radiation, especially with regard to the possible contamination of fish. Personal accounts of the Rongelap people can be seen in the documentary _Children of Armageddon_.

List of military nuclear accidents - Wikipedia
Operation Castle
Operation Castle - Wikipedia
Castle Bravo - Wikipedia


----------



## mhansen2

2 - 8 March

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

9 March

1964 - ATLAS F / Walker AFB, New Mexico 

An ATLAS F ICBM exploded in its silo during a maintenance exercise. It was the third explosion of an ATLAS F at the base within the past year and the second within a month (the latest previous explosion was on February 13, 1964). The missile exploded at a height of about three feet above the base of silo as it was being raised out of the silo. The ATLAS was fueled and liquid oxygen was being pumped into it when a fire broke out in the silo, touching off the blast. No one was injured by the explosion. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.274-275.


----------



## mhansen2

10 March

1956 – B-47E / French Morocco

The aircraft was one of a flight of four scheduled for non-stop deployment from MacDill AFB near Tampa, Florida to an overseas air base (Ben Guerir AFB in French Morocco); the flight was expected to last 10 to 12 hours. The takeoff from MacDill and first mid-air refueling near Lajes, Brazil were normal. The second refueling point was over the Mediterranean Sea. In preparation for refueling, the flight penetrated solid cloud formation to descend to the refueling level of 14,000 feet; visibility was poor.

The B-47, with no weapons but with two type 210DE nuclear capsules in carrying cases aboard, never made contact with its tanker. The last radio message received from the bomber was a query as to the location of its tanker; the aircraft was at a position of approximately 35D 40M N, 4D 50M W, placing it over the Mediterranean Sea due west of Oran, Algeria and east of Tangier, Morocco. When it disappeared, the plane was carrying a 43,000 pound fuel load sufficient for another four and a half hours flight or a range of 2,500 miles; flying time to Ben Guerir AFB in Morocco from this location was just one hour.

At no time did the tanker assigned to the missing bomber ever make either radar or radio contact with the B-47. An extensive air, sea, and land search, conducted between March 10 and March 20, centering about 90 miles southwest of Oran, Algeria in the French Moroccan desert northwest of the Sahara Atlas Mountains, failed to locate any traces of either the missing aircraft or its crew or cargo. Bad weather in this area for two to three days after the bomber disappeared prevented an immediate aerial search.

For a while, some persons believed that the aircraft and crew might have defected and flown to the Soviet Union; however, no evidence was ever found to support this hypothesis. By mid-September 1956, DOD had concluded that the weapons were irretrievably lost and that the case was closed, and had requested the AEC to replace the lost material. In October 1956, the AEC issued two replacement capsules to the DOD.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.241.


----------



## mhansen2

11 March

1958 – B-47 / Florence, South Carolina

At 3:53 PM EST, a B-47E departed Hunter AFB, Georgia, as the number three aircraft in a flight of four enroute to the United Kingdom during a SAC exercise named Snow Flurry.

After the aircraft leveled off at 15,000 feet approximately 25 minutes after takeoff, a bomb release mechanism malfunctioned and jettisoned an unarmed (MK 6?) nuclear weapon which landed in a sparsely populated area 6.5 miles east of Florence, South Carolina.

The HE in the device exploded at 4:20 PM local time on impact in a garden approximately 100 yards to the rear of house in Mars Bluff, a community ten miles east of Florence. The blast resulted in a crater 50 to 70 feet in diameter and 25 to 30 deep and caused minor injuries to members of a family in a residence about 75 yards from the impact point. Pine trees were blown down or shredded, the house was virtually destroyed, its back and roof caved in by the blast, a workshop was demolished, a garage seriously damaged, and five other nearby residences and a church were damaged slightly. Six persons were injured, including a nine-year old girl relative of a family in the house who was treated at a local hospital for shock. No one was killed. Five months later, one family was paid $54,000 for damages to their property.

The aircraft returned to Hunter AFB without further incident. Although there was a nuclear capsule aboard the B-47, there was none in the bomb, and there was only negligible radiation release. Cleanup continued for several days after the accident; only about 25 lbs. of weapon remains were recovered as a result of an intensive search out to 3,000 feet in all directions from the crater. Fragments were found in an elliptical pattern downwind from the crater. Following this incident, steps were taken to fasten weapons more securely aboard aircraft, making accidental or intentional jettison more difficult.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.250.

Location on Google Earth:  34 12 3.25 N, 79 39 25.66 W
1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident - Wikipedia


----------



## mhansen2

12 - 13 March

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

14 March

1961 - B-52 / Yuba City, California 

A B-52F on a "Coverall" airborne alert mission suffered a failure of the crew compartment pressurization system, forcing descent to 10,000 feet altitude, and resulting in increased fuel consumption which in turn caused fuel exhaustion and a crash before the aircraft could rendezvous with a tanker. The crew, with the exception of the aircraft commander, bailed out. The commander stayed with the B-52 to an altitude of 4,000 feet while steering the plane away from a populated area; he then also ejected.

The plane crashed just after 10:00 AM about 15 miles SW of Yuba City and carved out a wreckage field about 25 yards wide and 350 to 400 yards long. There was no fire.

Two MK 39 nuclear weapons aboard the aircraft were torn away on impact with the ground and separated by about 40 yards; the HE in them did not detonate although both devices were broken apart as a result of the crash (components were recovered). The nose of one bomb was crushed and HE in the primary was widely scattered; pieces of this weapon were spread over an area of 200 square yards. The primary and secondary of this weapon were thrown out of the ballistic case; the primary was destroyed and the secondary severely damaged.

Safety devices worked as designed, and there was no nuclear contamination. Tritium reservoirs from both bombs were torn loose, thrown 200 to 400 feet, but recovered intact.

All eight crewmen survived (two with injuries); a fireman died when his truck overturned enroute to the blazing aircraft wreckage. The recovery operation was hindered by rain and muddy terrain. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.267.


----------



## mhansen2

15 - 17 March

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

18 March

1962 - THOR missile / Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

During a fourth attempt to conduct a high-altitude thermonuclear explosion, the THOR launch vehicle and its W-49 warhead were deliberately destroyed in flight following loss of control of the missile. Some radioactive debris fell back on Johnston Island.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.271.

1963 – TITAN I / Larson AFB, near Moses Lake, Washington

During a maintenance operation, electrical power was applied to a check-out connector, resulting in an accidental firing of a separation rocket on the TITAN I missile RV in silo #3, complex ALFA, at approximately 1:40 PM. The TITAN was fueled but had no oxidizer aboard.

The cause of the rocket ignition was attributed to stray voltage induced by corrosion and/or moisture in electrical connectors. There was no fire or injury and damage was minor; neither the missile nor its war-reserve warhead were seriously damaged. There were no personnel casualties. (Not a "Broken Arrow" accident.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.271-272.
Titan I 568-A Missile Silo Larson AFB Washington


----------



## mhansen2

19 March - 10 April

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

11 April

1950 – B-29 / Manzano Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico

The aircraft, carrying an unarmed nuclear weapon and its capsule, departed Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque at 9:38 PM and, instead of climbing to 500 feet and turning right to avoid mountains to the east, proceeded straight out for three minutes at a low altitude for seven miles, rising only 900 to 1,000 feet above ground. At that time, a thin line of fire was noted on the foothills east of Kirtland; within five seconds, this fire mushroomed into a large billow of flame. No explosion was heard at either Kirtland AFB or on Sandia Base.

The crash into a mountain on Manzano Base killed all 13 crewmen aboard the B-29.  Detonators were installed in a nuclear bomb aboard the aircraft, but for safety reasons the capsule was not inserted so a nuclear detonation was averted. The bomb casing was demolished and some HE burned in the subsequent aircraft fire fed by a full fuel load.

Other pieces of unburned HE and bomb components were scattered throughout the wreckage.

The bomb sphere and HE were scattered over an area of approximately 100 yards and were completely demolished. The HE did not detonate but burned after the gasoline explosion. Four spare detonators in their carrying cases were recovered undamaged.  There were no contamination or recovery problems. Weapon components salvaged from the crash were returned to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.237.


----------



## mhansen2

12 - 14 April

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

15 April 

1952 – B-36D / Fairchild AFB, near Spokane, Washington

While making a maximum gross weight takeoff in darkness at about 3:45 AM, a B-36D failed to become safely airborne and crashed off the end of a runway at Fairchild AFB.

The aircraft was airborne briefly for approximately a quarter mile, when one starboard engine began backfiring and caught fire, followed by the shutdown of all six engines. The aircraft then skidded on its nose for another quarter mile, struck a ditch, and exploded. A “large heavy object (of highly classified nature)” tore through the front of the plane on impact, causing severe injuries to many crewmen. Later, amid several smaller explosions, a huge single explosion shook the ground. Seventeen men were aboard the plane; 15 were killed and two survived with major injuries.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.239


----------



## mhansen2

16 - 21 April

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

Unknown date April (22 April?)

1980 – TITAN II missile / Wichita, Kansas

An EPA report dated February 1991 lists a TITAN as having been involved in a nuclear weapons accident on this date at this location. No further details are currently available. A newspaper clipping dated September 20, 1980 referred to a "leaking incident" at a TITAN silo near Potwin, Kansas on April 22, 1980.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.290.
Titan II 533-1 Missile Silo McConnell AFB Kansas


----------



## mhansen2

23 - 30 April

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

Unknown date in May

1958 – An AEC memorandum dated May 5, 1958 reports on damage to an unidentified parachute-retarded nuclear aircraft bomb at an unspecified site and date. Damage was severe and included a four-inch long, quarter-inch deep gouge in the forward bomb case; severe deformation of the lower left fin; one spoiler band torn from the bomb and two other bands damaged; and some damage to the bomb parachute. The weapon and its capsule were returned to the Manzano Base in Albuquerque for a complete damage assessment. There were no casualties or injuries to personnel as a result of this accident.  (Not a "Broken Arrow" incident.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.251

1963 - TITAN I / Beale AFB, near Marysville, California

During a maintenance operation involving missile batteries, personnel following instructions in a technical manual made an electrical connection that applied voltage to interstage separation rockets, causing them to ignite. There was some damage to the missile and silo equipment. There were no personnel injuries and the war-reserve warhead was not damaged. (Not a "Broken Arrow" incident.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.272.

1 May

1950 – B-29 / Unknown

A tabulation of Los Alamos National Laboratory archive files lists a folder named “Sites w/SRD Doc on B-29 Crash, 5/1/50.” No other details currently available. (This may possibly be a reference to the April 11, 1950 crash at Manzano.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.237


----------



## mhansen2

2 - 10 May

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

11 May

1966 – F-104 / Tonopah, Nevada

An inert bomb test unit intended for drop at the AEC's Tonopah Test Range was dropped off-range by an F-104 between Lathrop Wells and Beatty, Nevada, approximately 80 miles southwest of the target area. The aircraft was flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet at a speed of Mach 1.2 when the incident occurred.

The test unit did not contain any internal classified components, but the construction of its nose was classified as confidential formerly-restricted data. Unclassified depleted uranium weighing about 202 lbs. was used for weight simulation in the unit. An unsuccessful search for the lost device was conducted; the Air Force eventually declared the item irretrievably lost.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.284-285.


----------



## mhansen2

12 - 13 May

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

14 May

1964 – Altus AFB, near Frederick, Oklahoma

An ATLAS F ICBM in silo 577-6 assigned to Altus AFB exploded in its silo.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.275.
Atlas Missile Silo Coordinates


----------



## mhansen2

15 - 20 May

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

21 May

1946 - Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
– Accidental criticality.

While demonstrating his technique to visiting scientists at Los Alamos, Canadian physicist Louis Slotin manually assembled a critical mass of plutonium. A momentary slip of a screwdriver caused a prompt critical reaction. Slotin died on May 30 from massive radiation poisoning, with an estimated dose of 1,000 rads (rad), or 10 grays(Gy). Seven observers, who received doses as high as 166 rads, survived, yet three died within a few decades from conditions believed to be radiation-related.

List of military nuclear accidents - Wikipedia

The blue flash


----------



## mhansen2

22 May

1957 – B-36 / Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico

The aircraft was ferrying an unarmed MK 17 weapon and its nuclear capsule from Biggs AFB, near El Paso, Texas, to Kirtland AFB. At 11:50 AM MST, while approaching Kirtland at an altitude of 1,700 feet, the weapon was accidentally dropped from the aircraft, taking the bomb bay doors with it. The release mechanism locking pin was being removed at the time of release. It was standard procedure at that time to remove the locking pin during takeoff and landing to permit emergency jettison of the weapon, if necessary.

Weapon parachutes were partially deployed but did not fully retard the fall of the bomb because of the low altitude. The bomb fell onto land owned by the University of New Mexico, approximately 4.5 miles south of the Kirtland AFB control tower and 0.3 miles west of the AEC's Sandia Reservation. HE in the bomb's primary detonated when the massive secondary slid forward on weapon impact, completely destroying the bomb and making a crater approximately 25 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep, and raising a cloud of dust and smoke 1,500 feet high. Debris consisting of case sections was scattered over the surrounding mesa up to a mile from the impact point.

Recovery and cleanup were conducted by Field Command, Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (FCAFSWP). The weapon's secondary was recovered essentially intact after being found buried just beneath the floor of the crater, its lower half embedded in hardpan. Radiological survey at the of the area disclosed no radioactivity beyond the lip of the crater at which point the level was 0.5 milliroentgens. There were no health or safety problems. The nuclear capsule was recovered from the aircraft.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.242-243.

1962 – Chico, California, USA – Explosion of Titan I ICBM in silo in Chico, California.

Titan I ICBM explodes in its silo in Chico, California.  During a contractor checkout, a leak and subsequent explosion occurred at launcher 1 at complex 4C at Chico, destroying a Titan I and causing heavy damage to the silo. The Air Force concluded that the two separate explosions occurred because of a blocked vent and blocked valve. All contractors and crew of the silo escaped unharmed.

List of military nuclear accidents - Wikipedia
Titan I 851-C Missile Silo Beale AFB California

1968 - U.S.S. SCORPION / At sea, Atlantic Ocean

The nuclear-powered SKIPJACK-class attack submarine U.S.S. SCORPION (SSN-589) was lost at sea with all hands (99 men) while running submerged approximately 400 miles southwest of the Azores Islands. The vessel was returning from deployment in the Mediterranean Sea to her homeport in Norfolk, Virginia when vibration started a fire inside a faulty battery in a MK 37 conventional torpedo and led to a low-order detonation of the warhead, which in turn blew hatches in the torpedo room compartment, leading to uncontrollable flooding and subsequent rapid sinking. Battery fires in MK 37 torpedoes had occurred earlier aboard other submarines.

Underwater sensors off the east coast of the U.S. detected the sounds of the explosion and subsequent breakup of the submarine as it sank. The relatively-intact hull, broken into two major sections, was located in 10,000 feet of water on October 30, 1968; photographs taken by underwater cameras showed the missing torpedo room hatches. The Navy was not able to definitely ascertain the cause of the torpedo explosion; other weapons aboard the SCORPION, including two MK 45 ASTOR torpedoes armed with W-34 warheads, were not recovered.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.288.


----------



## mhansen2

23 May

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

24 - 31 May

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

Unknown date in June

1958 – F-102 / Near Hamilton AFB, Novato, California

A pair of dummy MB-1 rockets were accidentally jettisoned into San Pablo Bay, California; both were later recovered. There were no warheads on the rockets.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.251

1962 – TITAN I missile / Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota

Due to a personnel error during a maintenance operation, a cable between the missile and the silo was disconnected, resulting in ignition of the interstage separation rockets which lifted the second stage of the TITAN off the first stage, causing substantial damage. There was no fire or personnel injury; the rocket was not carrying a war-reserve warhead, so the incident was not reported to the AEC. (Not a "Broken Arrow" incident.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.270.
Titan I Missile Silo Coordinates

1 June

1963 – ATLAS F missile / Walker AFB, near Roswell, New Mexico

The missile launch crew was completing a normal training exercise which involved preparation of the missile for flight. The exercise included loading both liquid oxygen (lox) and fuel aboard the ATLAS; because of this, no warhead was installed. The crew had begun unloading lox from the rocket preparatory to re-installing the warhead; due to a defective lox drain valve, a fire started in a main lox filter, possibly due to the presence of hydrocarbon contaminants.

The main lox tank then ruptured, allowing its upper portion to fall and rupture the fuel tank below. The mixture of fuel and lox then exploded and threw two 80-ton silo doors about 70 feet. The fire burned for 12 hours, causing severe damage to the missile silo. There were no personnel injuries as a result of the incident and the adjacent launch control center was essentially undamaged. (Not a "Broken Arrow" incident.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.272.
Atlas Missile Silo Coordinates


----------



## mhansen2

2 - 3 June

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

4 June

1959 – Railroad train / Near Remington, Indiana

A special train shipment carrying assembled nuclear weapons left Burlington, Iowa at 2:00 AM CST on June 4. At 12:40 PM CST on the Pennsylvania Railroad in open farm country one and a half miles west of Remington, Indiana and about six miles east of Goodland, Indiana, the last of nine special freight cars and a trailing "buffer" car derailed at a speed of 45 MPH. There was no damage to the contents of the freight car and it was placed back on the tracks and was again enroute by 7:10 PM CST on June 4. No press release was issued.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.254.

1962 - THOR missile / Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

During an attempt to conduct a high-altitude thermonuclear explosion, the THOR launch vehicle and its W-49 warhead were deliberately destroyed in flight at an altitude of 25 miles. The warhead and re-entry vehicle fell into deep water and no recovery was attempted.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.270.


----------



## mhansen2

5 - 6 June

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

7 June

1960 – BOMARC / McGuire AFB, near Trenton, New Jersey

A BOMARC IM-99A air defense missile in ready storage condition with a W-40 warhead installed in its enclosed 20 by 40 foot cement shelter (permitting launch in two minutes) was destroyed around 3:15 PM EDT in its launching shelter by explosion and fire after a high-pressure helium tank used to pressurize fuel tanks exploded and ruptured the missile's liquid fuel tanks. The fire apparently started in the missile fuel storage area, housed about 20 feet from the missile inside the shelter.

When emergency personnel arrived at the missile shelter, the BOMARC was burning and no attempt could be made to bring the fire under control. Water hoses were placed through the shelter doors before firefighters were evacuated due to fear of an explosion; they returned about a half hour later and contained the fire. A five to eight knot northeast wind was blowing, sending smoke from the fire off-base.

At approximately 7:15, decontamination personnel entered the shelter. The nose section of the missile was still smoldering, and approximately an inch of water covered the shelter floor and was pouring into a drainage ditch. A reading of 250 counts per minute was detected directly under the warhead; water apparently shielded other readings.

The roof directly above the fuel storage area was completely burned. The W-40 missile warhead was also destroyed by the fire although the HE in the warhead did not detonate. The HE burned with jet fuel, creating an intense “super heat” for nearly an hour. The plutonium in the warhead pit melted and puddled under the burnt-out missile, along with aluminum slag and oxides. No explosive residue was found. The warhead's tritium reservoir was recovered intact and appeared to be in good condition.

Nuclear safety devices in the warhead functioned as intended. Alpha particle contamination from the plutonium in the warhead was restricted to an area immediately beneath the weapon and to an adjacent elongated area approximately 100 feet long, carried by smoke and run-off of water used to fight the fire. A high reading of 160,000 counts per minute was found in this area; a reading of over 2,000,000 counts per minute was detected in the warhead residue. Other areas within the shelter gave readings between 100 to 50,000 counts per minute.

No ground contamination was found beyond 100 feet from the accident location. (Other reports state that contamination covered several acres; although the smoke from the fire was not monitored, 66 square miles of off-base area was surveyed by the Public Health Service which found no traces of radioactive contamination.)

Runoff water was absorbed within sandy soil approximately 500 feet from the fire. A dam was constructed to insure that the water did not leave the base.

The contaminated area was plowed under and later covered with two inches of concrete. The remains of the warhead, tritium reservoir, and pit residue from the missile shelter were placed in plastic bags, put into sealed containers, double-wrapped, and shipped to AEC laboratories. Both the inside and outside of the shelter were painted with thick coats of paint.

During the summer of 1999, the Air Force contracted with a South Carolina company to remove 8,000 cubic yards of soil and 500 to 600 cubic yards of concrete and pavement believed to still be contaminated with plutonium. By late July 2001, $6.5 million was to be spent to remove approximately 12,000 cubic yards of soil and 440 cubic yards of building debris staring in the spring of 2002. The debris was to be transported by truck and rail, probably to a DOE waste site in South Carolina.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.258-260.


----------



## mhansen2

8 - 15 June

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

16 June

1956 - June 16, 1956 / C-124 / Eniwetok atoll, Pacific Ocean 

An inbound MATS C-124 carrying nuclear test device components (possibly for the EGG device fired during the Operation REDWING Mohawk test) crashed 421 feet  short of, and eight feet below, the runway at Eniwetok island, shearing off its landing gear and coming to rest 2,000 feet from the southeast end of the runway. A fire that ensued was extinguished within three hours. There was no loss of life, and most of the cargo, although damaged by water and foam, was recovered. The runway was cleared of wreckage and reopened to normal traffic before noon on June 17. Salvage of certain aircraft components was accomplished by a team from Hickam AFB, Hawaii.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.242


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## mhansen2

17 - 18 June

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

19 June

1957 – Navy plane / Off Jacksonville, Florida

A U. S. Navy plane jettisoned “an atomic bomb (that) did not (contain) fissionable material.” The Navy attempted to recover the weapon.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.243


----------



## mhansen2

20 June

1962 - THOR missile / Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

During a second attempt to conduct a high-altitude thermonuclear explosion, the THOR launch vehicle and its W-49 warhead were deliberately destroyed in flight at an altitude between 30,000 and 35,000 feet. Plutonium from the W-49 warhead contaminated Sand Island near Johnston.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.270.


----------



## mhansen2

21 June

1961 – DOD weapons storage facility

(Date approximate)  An incident occurred involving flooding of a nuclear weapons storage facility caused by a flash flood resulting from more than four inches of rain falling in less than three hours. The weapons were inundated for periods ranging from 40 minutes to two hours. Tests indicated that the warheads were acceptable for use without repair. A number of MK 28 components were involved, including MK 28 Mod 1 fuses, MK 28EX external shape components, and MK 28RE retarded external shape components. Based on initial examination of these major assemblies, it appeared that all could be repaired by cleaning or replacing certain components. These weapons were returned to the AEC’s Medina Modification Center for cleanup or component replacement. The site drainage system was revised to prevent future flooding.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.267-268.


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## mhansen2

22 - 30 June

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

My mistake from the above entry.

30 June

1966 - A-4C / Near Vieques Island, Puerto Rico

Due to equipment malfunction, a complete OST bomb without nuclear materials was accidentally lost off a Navy bomber during an operational suitability test flight near the island of Vieques, off the east coast of Puerto Rico. The Navy plane was operating from the carrier U.S.S. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (CVA-42). The weapon was believed lost in waters 120 feet deep while the plane was conducting a practice strike against a simulated airfield on Vieques, an island used by the U.S. Navy as a bombing and gunnery target.

Although there was no danger from explosion or radioactivity, the loss of the classified device in shallow waters led to a search by seven Navy mine sweepers, a landing ship dock, and a salvage ship. After scanning a 10 square mile area, the weapon was found about 1,500 yards offshore. The search effort was hindered in part by the large amount of metallic debris on the ocean bottom.

The OST device was located at 5:42 AM EDT on August 20 two miles northeast of Punta Este. The center body was intact and fragments were scattered within a 100 yard radius. There had been no detonation of the HE in the device. The OST weapon was recovered by 7:45 PM on the same day; by August 22, all major components had been recovered and delivered to the Roosevelt Roads naval station. The device was later disassembled at Sandia base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Because of fear of attempts of recovery by unauthorized or hostile parties, no public announcement of the incident was ever made.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.285.


----------



## mhansen2

Unknown date in the Summer

1951 – B-36 / Eglin AFB Bombing Range

A B-36 crew was on a training mission to the Eglin AFB bombing range in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida panhandle to drop an unarmed obsolete nuclear gravity bomb on a water target. Because of past mechanical problems, the bombardier was briefed to open the airplane’s bomb bay doors at the Initial Point (IP).

Although the bomber’s bombing-navigation radar was still in the navigation mode, the bomb dropped unexpectedly when the bay doors were opened, and the 5,000 lbs. of high explosives in the weapon burst in the air over a non-designated target area. An intensive investigation concluded that a corroded D-2 switch, a hand-held bomb release switch, was found to be in the “closed” position and the bomb was dropped through equipment malfunction.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.239

1959 – NIKE HERCULES / Okinawa

In June or July 1959, A NIKE HERCULES surface-to-air missile was inadvertently launched from Site 8 at Naha AFB when a short-circuit in the launcher caused the boosters to ignite during a continuity test of the launch circuit. Several Army personnel were killed and injured. The missile blasted through a chain-link fence, across a deserted beach, and landed in the water offshore several hundred yards away from the launcher. Upon impact with the water, the missile broke up and the warhead “skipped across the water like a flat rock” before finally stopping and sinking.

Two Army personnel were killed instantly by the blast of the booster, and at least one other was injured. (This may have been one of the two accidental surface-to-air missile launches reportedly recounted to President John Kennedy early in 1961.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.254.


----------



## mhansen2

1 - 3 July

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

4 - 5 July

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

6 July

1959 - C-124 / Barksdale AFB, near Shreveport, Louisiana

A C-124 on a nuclear logistics movement mission carrying three thermonuclear weapons to Little Rock AFB crashed on takeoff after suffering loss of power to its number three and four engines approximately 3,500 feet from the end of runway 14 at approximately 2:10 PM. The entire fuselage of the aircraft and two starboard engines were destroyed by fire which also destroyed one weapon. Wing sections between fuselage and engines also sustained fire damage and were further damaged upon impact.

The entire aircraft tail section remained intact. No nuclear or HE detonations occurred; weapon safety devices functioned as designed and all three weapons were recovered from the wreckage.

All seven aircrew members suffered minor cuts and bruises. There was damage to the airbase; approximately three acres of planted cotton, a strip of freshly-cut straw stubble about 15 feet wide, and about 180 feet of barbed wire and six fence posts were torn up by the crash.

There was limited nuclear contamination over a one square foot area immediately below the destroyed weapon. This contamination did not hamper rescue or fire fighting operations. The fire was fought with foam, which seemed to extinguish the blaze. However, when it began raining, the foam was washed away and the fire re-ignited.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.254-255.


----------



## mhansen2

7 - 12 July

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

13 July

1950 –B-50D / Lebanon, Ohio

A B-50D was on a training mission from Biggs AFB, near El Paso, Texas, flying between 7,000 and 8,000 feet on a clear day. At about 2:54 PM EST, the aircraft was seen in a spiraling descent, followed by a stall at about 4,000 feet and a spin to the right. The aircraft nosed down and flew into the ground, crashing and exploding instantly between Lebanon and Mason, Ohio, killing four officers and 12 airmen.

There were no radio communications from the plane before it crashed, and although crew members were wearing parachutes, none bailed out. The HE in an unarmed nuclear weapon aboard the aircraft detonated on impact, making a 200 square-foot crater 25 feet deep; the explosion was heard over a radius of 25 miles. There was no nuclear capsule aboard the plane.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.237


----------



## mhansen2

14 - 16 July

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

17 July

1960 – U.S. Navy ship / Unknown

At approximately 0950 Zulu hours, a nuclear weapon magazine on the ship was flooded to a depth of two or three feet, caused by the failure of a steel cap on a brass nipple of the fire main. The failure was caused by electrolytic action. A number of weapons were flooded with about six inches of water inside their cases, but their pits remained dry. Action was taken aboard the ship to dry the weapon interiors and prevent further deterioration caused by salt water. All weapons were offloaded to appropriate sites for inspection and replacement weapons were furnished to the Navy.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.261.


----------



## mhansen2

18 July

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

19 July

1962 – JUPITER missile / Italy

A JUPITER missile armed with a W-49 warhead was struck by lightning, resulting in deuterium-tritium boosting gas being injected into the warhead pit and activation of thermal batteries in the adaption kit. The missile was returned to operational status after 62 days. The warhead was returned to the AEC’s Clarksville facility for repair.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.270.


----------



## mhansen2

20 - 24 July

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

25 July

1962 - THOR missile / Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean

During a third attempt to conduct a high-altitude thermonuclear explosion, the THOR launch vehicle and its W-49 warhead were deliberately destroyed on the launching pad following engine malfunction. Damage to the pad and contamination of the launch complex were serious enough to delay completion of the nuclear test operation.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.271.


----------



## mhansen2

26 July

1955 – Navy jet / Near Roswell, New Mexico

On the afternoon of July 26, a Navy jet fighter flying a practice mission developed engine trouble and jettisoned an Operational Suitability Test (OST) bomb approximately 40 miles from Roswell. The bomb, which was not carrying nuclear components, was later recovered.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.240


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## mhansen2

27 July

1956 – B-47 / RAF Base Lakenheath, near Cambridge, East Anglia, England ("SAC REFLEX Base")


A B-47 from Lincoln AFB, Nebraska with no weapons aboard was on a routine training mission making a touch-and-go landing when the aircraft suddenly went out of control and slid off the runway, crashing into a storage igloo containing three MK 6 bombs in storage configuration. Although the B-47 and its fuel burned after impact into the igloo, killing all four crewmen, the nuclear weapons did not burn or detonate. (One SAC bomb disposal officer stated that it was “a miracle” that one MK 6 with exposed detonators sheared off did not explode.)

There were no contamination or cleanup problems. The damaged weapons and components were returned to the AEC. No capsules of nuclear material were in either the weapons or the storage igloo. The presence of nuclear weapons was officially denied at the time of the accident: personnel on the base were ordered to evacuate the area because there allegedly was live .50-caliber ammunition in the burning plane.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.242


----------



## mhansen2

28 July

1957 – C-124 / Atlantic Ocean

Two MK 5 weapons without nuclear capsules installed were jettisoned from a C-124 off the east coast of the United States approximately 100 miles southeast of Naval Air Station, Pomona, New Jersey, just outside Delaware Bay east of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and south of Wildwood and Cape May, New Jersey. The aircraft was carrying three weapons and one nuclear capsule; the weapons were in Complete Assembly for Ferry (CAF) condition.

Nuclear components were not installed in the weapons; power supplies were installed but not connected. The C-124 was enroute from Dover AFB, Delaware, to Europe via the Azores islands when its two left wing engines lost power. Maximum power was applied to the two engines on the right wing; however, level flight could not be maintained. At this point, the crew decided to jettison one weapon at an altitude of 4,500 feet approximately 75 miles off the coast of New Jersey. The second weapon was jettisoned soon afterwards at an altitude of 2,500 feet at a distance of 50 miles from the New Jersey coast.

No detonation was seen to occur from either weapon, and both bombs were presumed to have been damaged or destroyed on impact with the sea and to have sunk almost instantly. (The ocean varied in depth near the sites where the weapons were jettisoned.)

The C-124 landed at an airfield in the vicinity of Atlantic City, New Jersey, with the remaining weapon and the nuclear capsule aboard. After a three-month long search, neither the weapons nor any debris were located. By November 1957, the AEC was taking action to issue replacement weapons to the DOD. No public announcement of this incident was made at the time it happened.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.243-244.


----------



## mhansen2

29 July

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

30 July

1986 - PERSHING Ia MRBM / West Germany

The warhead of the missile was broken off and damaged while the missile was being moved by a crane.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.292.


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## mhansen2

31 July

1958 – / GENIE / White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

An inert XW-25 warhead was flown aboard an MB-1 GENIE missile which was fired from an aircraft. No explosive or nuclear components were installed in the warhead. The mechanical and electrical components installed had an overall classification of Secret - Restricted Data.

The estimated warhead impact area was well within the WSMR boundaries and was 15 miles from the nearest road. An organized search was conducted until mid-November 1958 when the warhead was given up for lost.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.251.


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## mhansen2

1 - 4 August

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

5 August

1950 – / B-29 / Fairfield-Suisun AFB, near Fairfield, California

A B-29, one of a flight of 10 bound for Hawaii and Guam, and carrying an unarmed MK 4 nuclear weapon and no nuclear capsule, experienced two runaway propellers and landing gear retraction problems on takeoff from Fairfield-Suisun AFB at about 10:00 PM PST. Immediately after takeoff, the nose of the aircraft swerved to the left and rolled sharply. The aircraft crashed, burned, and exploded about five minutes after takeoff while attempting an emergency landing. Upon impact, the nose section broke off between the forward and aft bomb bays; when the wreckage came to a stop, an intense fire broke out.

None of the 10 persons in the rear pressurized compartment escaped, and all were fatally injured. One passenger and the aircraft commander General Robert F. Travis were fatally injured (Fairfield-Suisun AFB was subsequently renamed Travis AFB). Eight other persons in the forward compartment escaped with only minor injuries.

The fire was fought for 12 to 15 minutes before the weapon's 5,000 lbs. of HE detonated, creating a crater 60 feet wide and six feet deep; the blast was felt for 30 miles and the fire was visible for 65 miles. The crash initially caused fatal injuries to 12 crewmen and passengers and minor injuries to eight more crewmen and passengers (the plane carried nine passengers and eleven crewmen).

Extensive damage to private and government property and fatal and major and minor injuries to both additional civilian and military personnel were caused by the exploding nuclear bomb: seven fire-fighting and rescue personnel were killed; 181 other military and civil service personnel and civilian dependents received major or minor injuries. One dependent was injured when a fire extinguisher from the exploding plane was thrown through the roof of her quarters; the aircraft crashed near a trailer camp occupied by 200 Air Force families.

Although the MK 4 contained a 100 lb. uranium tamper, there was no radioactive contamination. At the time of the crash, the Air Force characterized the flight as "a long range training mission" and said that the explosion after the crash was caused by "ten to twelve 500 lb. bombs" purportedly aboard the plane.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.237


----------



## mhansen2

6 - 7 August

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

8 August

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

9 August

1965 – TITAN II missile / Searcy, Arkansas

An EPA report dated February 1991 lists a TITAN as having been involved in a nuclear weapons accident on this date at this location. Gregory (Shaun Gregory, “THE HIDDEN COST OF DETERRENCE: NUCLEAR WEAPONS ACCIDENTS,” Brassey's UK, London, England, 1990) claims that 53 persons were killed in a silo explosion and fire and that the missile's warhead had been deactivated and removed before the fire. No further details are currently available.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.277.
Titan II 373-4 Missile Silo Little Rock AFB Arkansas


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## mhansen2

10 - 20 August

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

21 August

1945 - Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA – Accidental criticality.

Harry Daghlian dropped a tungsten carbide brick onto a plutonium core inadvertently creating a critical mass at the Los Alamos Omega site. He quickly removed the brick, but was fatally irradiated, dying 15 September.


----------



## mhansen2

22 - 23 August

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

24 August

1978 – TITAN II missile / Rock, Kansas

An EPA report dated February 1991 lists a TITAN as having been involved in a nuclear weapons accident on this date at this location. Gregory claims that 13,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen tetroxide leaked from an unarmed TITAN and vaporized, resulting in the death of two persons and injuries to at least 30 others; residents in town were evacuated.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.290.

Titan II 533-7 Missile Silo McConnell AFB Kansas


----------



## mhansen2

25 - 30 August

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

31 August

1962 – JUPITER missile / Italy

A JUPITER missile armed with a W-49 warhead was struck by lightning, resulting in activation of thermal batteries in the adaption kit. The missile was returned to operational status after 31 days. Between July and September 1962, the Air Force erected protective lightning strike diversion tower arrays at all of its Italian and Turkish missile launch sites.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.271


----------



## mhansen2

Unknown date September

1959 – * NIKE HERCULES / Overseas Base*

Due to high winds, a NIKE HERCULES missile was damaged while on its launch rail.  The launch rail tore loose from the missile while the missile was being elevated for testing during a windstorm. The launch umbilical plug was sheared and the aft portion of the missile skin suffered moderate damage. The NIKE was taken off from the launcher, its JATO boosters removed, and then examined for further damage.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.256


----------



## mhansen2

2 September

1944 - Peter Bragg and Douglas Paul Meigs, two Manhattan Project chemists, were killed when their attempt to unclog a tube in a uranium enrichment device led to an explosion of radioactive uranium hexafluoride gas exploded at the Naval Research Laboratory in Philadelphia, PA. The explosion ruptured nearby steam pipes, leading to a gas and steam combination that bathed the men in a scalding, radioactive, acidic cloud of gas which killed them a short while later.

U.S. Nuclear Accidents


----------



## mhansen2

3 - 14 September

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

15 September

1980 - B-52H / Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota

A B-52H carrying both MK 28 bombs and nuclear-armed AGM-69 SRAM missiles caught fire at about 8:45 PM local time due to a fuel leak during an alert force engine start exercise. The crew escaped without injury. The fire burned intensely, fed by fuel gravity-feeding from the No. 3 main wing tank and was intensified by strong tailwinds that gusted to 30 miles per hour. However, the wind and base firefighters kept the flames away from the rest of the aircraft, in particular, away from wing hardpoints carrying the SRAMs.

The fire burned for more than three hours and was extinguished only after the fuel flow had ceased. LLNL director Roger Batzel later testified that "the wind was blowing down the axis of the airplane (fuselage); had the wind been blowing across, rather than parallel to, the fuselage, the whole aircraft (including its load of SRAMs) would have been engulfed in flames." (Not a "Broken Arrow" incident.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.290-291.


----------



## mhansen2

16 - 17 September

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

18 September

1959 – / FJ-4B / Hawaii

At 12:15 PM, an Operational Suitability Test weapon was inadvertently released from a U.S. Navy FJ-4B fighter-bomber off Kanuma Point lighthouse on the island of Hawaii. The weapon was lost in 3,600 feet of water.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.256.


----------



## mhansen2

19 September

1980 - TITAN II ICBM / Damascus, Arkansas

During routine maintenance in a TITAN missile silo, an Air Force technician dropped a heavy wrench socket, which rolled off a work platform and fell approximately 66 feet to the bottom of the silo. The socket bounced off the thrust mount and struck the missile, penetrating its skin, and causing a leak of liquid propellant and fumes from the pressurized fuel tank. The missile complex and surrounding area were evacuated and a team of specialists was called in from Little Rock AFB, the missile's main support base.

About 8 1/2 hours after the initial puncture, fuel vapors within the silo ignited and exploded, demolishing the 740 ton silo cover and hurling the missile warhead and encasing RV 600 feet. The explosion fatally injured one member of the team called in earlier and injured six other team members. Twenty-one other USAF personnel were injured. The missile's re-entry vehicle, containing a W-53 nuclear warhead, was blown out of the silo and recovered damaged but intact. There was no nuclear contamination.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.291.

Titan II Missile Explosion (1980) - Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Titan II 374-7 Missile Silo Little Rock AFB Arkansas


----------



## mhansen2

20 - 24 September

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

25 September

1959 – P5M / Off Washington coast

A U.S. Navy P5M based at NAS Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, Washington, ditched at about 8:00 PM PDT in the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles west of the Washington-Oregon border and 80 miles from Astoria, Oregon after suffering an engine failure and fire. The aircraft was carrying an unarmed war reserve nuclear antisubmarine weapon containing no nuclear material; the weapon was jettisoned into water 8,600 feet deep. The weapon was not recovered, but all ten crewmen were rescued by the Coast Guard after drifting in a raft for 10 hours. This accident was not announced to the press at the time.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.256.


----------



## mhansen2

26 - 30 September

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

Unknown date October

1960 – (2) A MK 28EX or MK 28RE weapon was damaged during unloading from a strike aircraft.  No aircraft power had been applied to the weapon, and the arm-safe switch was in the “safe” position.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.261


1975 – – Apra Harbor, Guam – Spill of irradiated water

While disabled, the submarine tender USS Proteus (AS-19) discharged radioactive coolant water. A Geiger counter at two of the harbor's public beaches showed 100 millirems/hour, fifty times the allowable dose.

List of military nuclear accidents - Wikipedia


----------



## mhansen2

1 - 3 October

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

4 October

1960 – SM-78 JUPITER missile / Italy

At 115 Zulu hours, during warhead installation and checkout operations, three explosive bolts on the left side of the missile accidentally fired, causing separation of the missile nose cone and MK 49 Alt 202 warhead from the missile. The missile was in an unerected horizontal position, resulting in a six to 10 foot drop of warhead and nose cone. Inspection of the warhead revealed no visible defects. No evidence of tritium gas escape was found during a subsequent warhead disassembly. Nose cone and warhead were returned to a local assembly area, then back to the continental U.S.

The bolts were fired by a power surge caused by a short circuit in connector plugs due to moisture infiltration and corrosion. All JUPITER missiles with mated warheads were placed on standby alert until all similar components could be checked.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.261.


----------



## mhansen2

5 - 10 October

No reported incidents.


----------



## mhansen2

11 October

1957 – B-47 / Homestead AFB, near Homestead, Florida

A B-47 participating in a large scale operational support exercise departed Homestead AFB shortly after midnight on a REFLEX deployment mission. Soon after takeoff, around 5:16 AM local time, one of the aircraft's outrigger tires exploded. The aircraft crashed and burned, killing four crewmen, in an open field approximately 3,800 feet from the end of the runway.

The B-47 was carrying in its bomb bay one MK 15/39 weapon in ferry configuration and one nuclear capsule in an M-102 “birdcage” carrying case in the crew compartment. The “birdcage” and capsule were retrieved intact, only slightly singed, before the aircraft wreckage became engulfed in flames. The weapon was enveloped in flames and burned and smoldered for approximately four hours after which it was cooled with water. Two low-order HE detonations occurred during the fire. Approximately one-half of the weapon remained after the fire was extinguished.

All major weapon components were severely mangled or charred but identifiable and accounted for except for the tailfins. The weapon afterbody was ripped from the forward case and rolled into a ball. There was no visible breakage to the squash (the weapon secondary) or blast shield. Intense heat melted the pit, causing it to settle and harden in the case, which was radiating five milliroentgens per hour. The capsule was intact and appeared to be only slightly damaged by the fire. The remains of the bomb were picked up and taken to a munitions storage area by 3:00 PM on the 11th; they were later transferred to the Army Ammunition Plant in Burlington, Iowa for disassembly and disposal. No significant contamination or cleanup problems were encountered.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.244

.


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## mhansen2

12 October

1965 – C-124 / Wright-Patterson AFB, near Dayton, Ohio

At approximately 1:00 AM CDT, a C-124 assigned to Warner Robins AFB near Macon, Georgia was being refueled in preparation for a routine logistics mission when a refueling hose was inadvertently disconnected and a fire started by a spark and fed by 200 gallons of gasoline ensued at the aft end of the refueling tanker truck. The magnesium alloy aluminum fuselage of the aircraft, containing only components of nuclear weapons including two neutron generators, two tritium reservoirs, and 16 MK 43 Mod 0/1 conversion kits and a dummy MK 53 weapon training unit, was destroyed by fire and the refueling truck was heavily damaged. Only the aircraft wings and landing gear remained intact; firefighters prevented gasoline in the wing tanks from igniting. Another 140 neutron generators aboard the aircraft were recovered undamaged, along with three flatbed truck loads of charred containers containing tritium reservoirs.

Base personnel, including firefighters, were not immediately aware that nuclear weapon components were aboard the aircraft. The fire was fought for three hours; water used for firefighting ran off through sewers to the Mad River, a Dayton city drinking water source, near the airbase. The aircrew was unhurt.

There were no casualties and the resultant radiation hazard was minimal. Minor tritium contamination below hazardous levels was found on the aircraft, cargo, and clothing of explosive ordnance disposal and fire-fighting personnel, and was removed by normal cleaning. The C-124's cargo was originally reported to be a limited quantity of conventional ammunition and this information was released to news media. Later it was discovered that the aircraft was also transporting an air shipment of non-explosive nuclear weapons systems components.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.277-278.


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## mhansen2

13 - 14 October

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

15 October

1959 – B-52 & KC-135 / Hardinsburg, Kentucky

A B-52 departed Columbus AFB, near Columbus, Mississippi, on a SAC airborne alert mission at 2:30 PM CST and assumed the #2 position in a flight of two aircraft. The KC-135 departed Columbus AFB at 5:33 PM CST as the #2 tanker in a flight of two scheduled to refuel the B-52s. The four aircraft rendezvoused for refueling near Hardinsburg, Kentucky at 32,000 feet. It was after dark, the weather was clear, and there was no turbulence.

Shortly after the #2 B-52 began refueling from its KC-135 tanker, the two aircraft collided about 12 miles south of Hardinsburg. The instructor pilot and pilot of the B-52 ejected, followed by the electronic warfare officer and the radar navigator; these crewmen sustained minor injuries. The copilot, navigator, instructor navigator, and tail gunner failed to leave the B-52 and were killed. The four-man crew of the tanker was killed. The KC-135 broke into two pieces and crashed; the two pieces were on the ground about a mile apart.

The B-52 crashed in essentially one piece at a distance of about three miles from the KC-135 wreckage. The bomber landed at the edge of a wooded area on the side of a small hill and then burned. The tail section was broken off the aircraft just behind the rear landing gear and remained in relatively large pieces. One section of the aft fuselage approximately eight to ten feet long remained intact. Trees were burned for a radius of about 100 yards; the bomber wreckage burned all night and into the following morning.

Only ashes of the forward fuselage, wings, and cockpit were found. Three bodies were found amidst the cockpit residue and the body of the tail gunner was found some distance away on the hillside where he had been thrown upon impact.

Two unarmed gas-boosted, sealed-pit thermonuclear bombs aboard the B-52 were recovered relatively intact after having landed in moist, spongy clay soil which absorbed much of their impact shock. Little or no burning occurred around the weapons despite the presence of a large fuel tank directly above the bomb bay; most of the jet fuel was thrown forward when the fuselage ruptured on impact. Burning was spotty aft of the forward landing gear wheel well and there was little fire in the tail section.

One weapon had been partially burned but this did not result in the explosion of its HE or in the dispersal of any nuclear material or other contamination. The HE in both weapons was shattered and dispersed; the forward case sections of both bombs were intact and unmarred by fire and were found buried nose-down approximately two-thirds of their length in the dirt in the same relative positions which they occupied in the aircraft an about six feet apart. The afterbodies of both weapons were torn off and found a short distance away. The tritium bottles for both weapons were recovered sealed and intact, along with spare detonators. Detonators on the weapons had been ripped loose and loose pieces of HE were evident at every opening in the weapon casings. The pit in each weapon was found lying loose on a pile of broken explosives.
The bombs were later returned to the AEC's Clarksville, Tennessee storage site for inspection and final disposition. There was no radiation detected above normal background level.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.257-258.


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## mhansen2

16 - 17 October

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

18 October

1960 – Nuclear bomb / Lake Mead Base, Nevada

Serious damage was inflicted to an aircraft bomb while cycling its automatic in-flight insertion mechanism. When an electrical connector was sheared off, the core charge was scored and gouged, and the sleeve of the HE charge where the core charge fitted was gouged, resulting in a quarter-teaspoon of powdered HE being scraped off.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.262.


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## mhansen2

19 October

1961 - *JUPITER missile / Italy*

A JUPITER missile armed with a W-49 warhead was struck by lightning, resulting in deuterium-tritium boosting gas being injected into the warhead pit and activation of thermal batteries in the adaption kit. The missile was returned to operational status after 76 days. On November 4, 1961 the warhead was flown back to the AEC’s Clarksville Modification Center for post-mortem examination. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.268.


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## mhansen2

20 - 28 October

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

29 October

1952 – Tractor-trailer / Kansas City, Missouri

A fire destroyed a tractor-trailer en route from Oak Ridge to the Bendix weapons component facility in Kansas City; the trailer was carrying a number of Type "D" uranium sphere bomb pits. Several kilograms of U-235 were destroyed. The fire followed a collision between the truck and two passenger vehicles east of Kansas City, Missouri.

Only three intact but badly distorted parts were recovered after the fire. Other items salvaged included halves of spheres and approximately 125 barrels of residue containing uranium oxide which was scraped up from an area immediately adjacent to the truck hulk. Value of the shipment was approximately $200,000; some uranium was later recovered from the oxidized material.

The AEC issued a press release stating that an AEC truck, carrying waste material to Bendix, was involved in the accident. (Not a "Broken Arrow".)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.239-240.


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## mhansen2

30 - 31 October

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

Unknown date November

1961 – SUBROC test vehicle / Off Florida

During a flight drop test run, a JATO-boosted SUBROC test vehicle carrying an Operational Suitability Test warhead was lost. Mathematical estimates indicated that the vehicle, which had been accelerated to a velocity of about 900 feet per second by the JATO booster, may have penetrated over 60 feet into the ocean floor. The test firings were being conducted by the Sandia Corporation, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory Test Facility at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Extensive recovery operations were conducted by the Naval Ordnance Laboratory; recovery efforts resulted in a hole 200 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 22 feet deep at its apex. No portion of the vehicle was recovered, even though the exact point of entry into the seabed was found. Excavation was hampered by drifting sand and hard coral; the ocean floor consisted of 15 feet of sand atop coral boulders. Water in the area was 50 feet deep.

The recovery operation, which began in late November 1961, was curtailed in June 1962 after $45,000 had been spent. The materials in the lost OST warhead included depleted uranium and less than an ounce of high explosives. There were no special nuclear materials in the unit.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.269.


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## mhansen2

2 November

1961 (date approximate) – Railroad Accident / Location unknown

A letter dated November 13, 1961 from Brig. Gen. A. W. Betts, Director of Military Application, USAEC, to James T. Ramey, Executive Director, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, refers to a railroad accident on an unspecified date on or before November 2, 1961 involving AEC material. Damage to the AEC caboose and cargo car consisted mainly of broken couplers and steam lines; the unspecified AEC material in the cargo car was reportedly not damaged. One AEC courier escorting the shipment suffered an injury to one of his arms.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.268.

1981 - POSEIDON SLBM / Holy Loch, Scotland

A POSEIDON missile was dropped 17 feet during its removal from submarine tender U.S.S. HOLLAND (AS-32) after a crane operator made an error. The missile's fall was arrested by a safety device, and there was no explosion. The missile's W-68 warhead contained relatively-unstable LX-09 HE, samples of which had detonated during laboratory impact tests. (Not a "Broken Arrow" incident.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.291.


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## mhansen2

3 November

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

4 November

1958 – B-47 / Dyess AFB, near Abilene, Texas

A B-47 caught fire on takeoff. Three crewmen ejected successfully; one was killed when the aircraft crashed from an altitude of 1,500 feet. One sealed pit nuclear weapon containing no plutonium and some tritium was aboard the plane; the resultant detonation of its primary HE made a crater 35 feet in diameter and six feet deep. There was some local tritium contamination. The weapon secondary was recovered intact but damaged near the crash site; the weapon case was destroyed. The tritium reservoir was found intact but leaking. The impact crater contained many small fragments of bomb casing, but no HE, which was believed to have been consumed by either explosion or fire. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.251-252.


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## mhansen2

5 November

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

6 November

1961 - W-47 pit / Pantex Ordnance Plant, Amarillo, Texas

During the disassembly of an early model W-47 warhead, the pit fill tube used to supply pressurized D-T gas to the pit during arming ruptured, permitting the helium inside the pit to escape (the pit was kept filled with helium to detect leaks during storage). The helium gas was contaminated by the radioactive plutonium in the pit. Three men working in the area heard the “hissing” caused by the escaping helium gas and immediately evacuated the area. Two men working on the pit were wearing respirators; all three men washed off some contamination on their skin and clothing. Three days were required to decontaminate the removable MK 47 tooling and another one to two weeks were required to decontaminate the accident area.

The U.S. Army Ordnance Corps representative at Pantex made the following announcement to the news media:

“Three Mason and Hanger-Silas Mason Co., Inc. employees were involved in a minor radiation incident on November 6 at the Pantex Ordnance Plant near Amarillo, Texas. The incident occurred during a routine operation involving radioactive materials. Medical examination of the three men, who have not lost any work time as a result of the incident, will be continued as a routine matter. There was no escape of radiation into the atmosphere.”

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.268-269.


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## mhansen2

7 - 9 November

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

10 November

1950 – B-50 / St. Lawrence River, Quebec, Canada

A B-50 with a crew of 12 aboard was on a weapons ferry flight from Goose Bay, Labrador to its home base at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona, when it lost power in two of its four engines. In order to maintain altitude, an unarmed MK 4 weapon without its nuclear capsule was jettisoned from an altitude of 10,500 feet just before 4:00 PM over the St. Lawrence River near the town of St. Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, about 90 miles northeast of Quebec, Canada.

The HE in the weapon was seen to detonate on impact near the middle of the 12-mile wide river. The shock from the blast rattled windows 25 miles away; a cloud of pale yellow smoke rose to an altitude of 3,000 feet. The official Air Force explanation at the time of the incident was that a B-50 had jettisoned three 500 lb. conventional HE bombs.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.238


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## mhansen2

11 November

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

12 November

1958 – AEC storage site

Two MK 49Y1 Mod 0 warheads loaded aboard a trailer for movement to a storage structure fell to the paved hardstand when the trailer tilted. The weapon casings were dented as a result of the impact; however, damage was slight and there was no leakage of tritium or radiological contamination. The units were shipped to the AEC's Burlington and Rocky Flats plants and the Sandia Corporation for inspection and possible repair and return to stockpile. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.252.


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## mhansen2

13 November

1963 - AEC Storage Igloo / Medina Base, near San Antonio, Texas 

At about 10:24 AM, while workmen were placing pits from dismantled atomic bombs into a storage magazine, a fire and ensuing explosion involving 120 lbs. of HE components of nuclear weapons caused minor injuries to three AEC employees while they were dismantling a weapon primary. The HE in the primary ignited with a force of about 60 tons of TNT and set off a larger amount of explosives nearby, completely destroying the storage magazine, and making a 20 foot deep crater. There was little contamination from nuclear components of disassembled obsolete weapons stored elsewhere in the building. The three men nearby were able to take cover before the blast and suffered only cuts, bruises, and sprains.

An AEC press release dated November 22, 1963 stated that "the accident occurred while three men were placing subassemblies containing natural and depleted uranium, aluminum, and chemical high explosives into an igloo for storage, preparatory to complete disassembly for reclamation of the metals and destruction of the chemical high explosives by burning." The AEC theorized that there may have been a mechanical contact between two subassemblies as they were being placed in the igloo; this led to a spark-induced fire and subsequent high-order explosion of other subassemblies.  (The Medina Works was closed in 1966.)

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.272-273.


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## mhansen2

14 - 19 November

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

20 November

1957 – Aircraft / Unknown

AEC document 907/4 dated November 20, 1957 refers to an "aircraft incident" on this date. No other details currently available.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.245.


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## mhansen2

21 - 25 November

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

26 November

1958 - B-47 / Chennault AFB, near Lake Charles, Louisiana

A B-47 loaded with a sealed-pit weapon containing no plutonium and some tritium caught fire on the ground after the accidental discharge of assisted take-off (ATO) bottles during the pilot's acceptance check. Discharge of the JATO units propelled the aircraft off the runway, where it collided with a towing vehicle and caught fire. The nuclear weapon case and all other components, with the exception of a few small pieces of high explosives, were destroyed by the fire; however, even in spite of one minor explosion, the secondary remained intact and the tritium reservoir was recovered. Contamination was limited to the immediate vicinity of the weapon residue within the aircraft wreckage.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.252.


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## mhansen2

27 November

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

28 November

1977 – CH-47 helicopter / West Germany

An Army CH-47 carrying nuclear warheads on a logistical movement crashed shortly after takeoff when it lost power in its no. 1 engine after the engine caught fire. The fire was extinguished by an internal extinguisher. The aircraft dropped rapidly, hit a row of trees and came to rest in a planted field approximately 200 to 300 meters from the point of takeoff. The aircraft bounced once and slid about 15 meters. The weapons were removed from the helicopter and taken to a storage site. There were no personnel injuries. The accident was categorized as a "Dull Sword" incident. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.290.


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## mhansen2

29 - 30 November

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

Unknown date in December

1958 – An MB-1T missile (Genie) separated from an aircraft pylon upon landing. The aircraft had been on range operations and returned carrying one rocket which had failed to fire. The impact of a normal landing caused the rocket to separate from the pylon when the aircraft’s brakes were applied. The missile skidded 135 feet down the runway.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.253.

1960 - C-124 / Kelly AFB, San Antonio, Texas

A MK 39Y1 Mod 2 bomb was being hoisted aboard a C-124 aircraft when one of the hoisting cables broke. The weapon, secured to its transportation dolly, dropped to the ramp and overturned. Damage to the weapon consisted of a scratch on the curved nose section and a damaged tail fin. Inspection of the arm/safe switch, dessicant compartments, parachute, thermal battery, safing switch, timers, and pull-out rods revealed that none of these devices had functioned.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.262.

1960 - W-25 Warhead / Kingsley Field, Klamath Falls, Oregon

When a service electrical check of a W-25 warhead in an MB-1 GENIE rocket was made, an abnormality occurred, indicating a possible short circuit in the high-voltage power supply. After a one-hour evacuation of the testing area, the test was conducted again
without abnormal results.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.262.

1 December

1961 – JUPITER missiles / Italy

Two JUPITER missiles armed with W-49 warheads were struck by lightning, resulting in radar fuse thermal battery activation in both warheads. One missile was returned to operational status after 76 days, the other after 59 days. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.269.


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## mhansen2

2 December

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

3 December

1962 – Railroad train / Marietta, Georgia

Two railroad cars and a locomotive of a Louisville & Nashville train were derailed at 5:00 AM EST about five miles north of Marietta while carrying uranium weapons components. The material was not damaged, but three couriers were injured. Neither of the boxcars overturned. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.271.


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## mhansen2

4 December

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

5 December

1964 – MINUTEMAN / Ellsworth AFB, near Rapid City, South Dakota

An LGM-30B MINUTEMAN ICBM was on strategic alert at Launch Facility (LF) L-02 near Vale, South Dakota, about 75 miles northwest of Rapid City, when two airmen were dispatched to the LF to repair the inner zone security system. In the midst of their checkout of the system, stray electrical voltage caused one retrorocket below the re-entry vehicle (RV) to fire, and the RV fell about 75 feet to the bottom of the silo and bounced off the interior silo wall and grazed the missile's second stage. Windscreen and heat shield material on the RV were detached and the warhead punctured.
When the RV struck the floor of the silo, the arming and fuzing altitude control subsystem containing batteries was torn loose, thus removing all sources of power from the RV. The RV structure received considerable damage. All safety devices functioned properly in that they did not sense the proper sequence of events to allow warhead arming. There was no detonation or radioactive contamination. A postmortem inspection at the AEC's Medina Base revealed that the primary assembly and HE within the RV were undamaged. Nonetheless, the warhead was deemed “no longer useable.”

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.275.

1965 – A-4 / Near Ryukyu Islands, Pacific Ocean

During a nuclear weapons loading exercise, an A-4E armed with a MK 43 weapon rolled off an elevator on the U.S.S. TICONDEROGA (CVA-14) and fell into the sea. The pilot, aircraft, and weapon were lost in 16,000 feet of water. The incident occurred 80 miles from one of the Ryukyu Islands near Okinawa. Water pressure broke the weapon apart and its fissile components were dispersed.
No public announcement of the accident was made at the time, nor was any ever intended: the subject was considered sensitive because of the potential impact upon visits of the TICONDEROGA and other U.S. naval warships carrying nuclear weapons to foreign ports. Many foreign countries allowed warships to visit only if they were certified by their governments not to be bearing nuclear weapons; oftentimes, both countries involved knew that the warships were carrying weapons anyway.
In July 1989, after the incident was made public in greater detail, Japanese scientists collected water samples at various depths at eight locations near where the bomb went into the sea; no radioactivity (above normal background levels) was found.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.278.


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## mhansen2

6 - 7 December

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

8 December

1964 - B-58 / Bunker Hill (now Grissom) AFB, near Peru, Indiana 

At about 11:59 local time, SAC aircraft were taxiing during an Operational Readiness Alert inspection exercise in bad weather. As one B-58 carrying a BA-53 warhead in a BLU-2/B pod and four other nuclear weapons reached a position directly behind the aircraft on the runway ahead of it, the leading aircraft throttled up. As a result of the combination of the jet blast from the leading aircraft, icy runway surface, and power applied to the trailing B-58 while attempting to turn onto the runway, control was lost and the B-58 slid off the left side of the taxiway into mud. There was approximately 4" of snow on the ground.

The left main landing gear passed over a flush-mounted taxiway light fixture and 10 feet farther along in its travel, grazed the left edge of a concrete light base. Ten feet farther, the left main landing gear struck a concrete electrical manhole box and collapsed; the left wing engine nacelles were torn off and the aircraft fuselage struck the ground and began burning (a frequent occurrence following B-58 landing gear failure).

When the aircraft came to rest, all three crew members abandoned the B-58. The aircraft commander and defensive systems operator escaped with superficial burns. The navigator ejected in his escape capsule, which landed heavily 548 feet from the burning aircraft (the parachute did not deploy). He did not survive. The high explosives in all five weapons detonated. Portions of three of the five nuclear weapons aboard the plane burned; tritium contamination from one weapon was limited to the immediate area of the crash and was subsequently cleaned up. There was no plutonium contamination. The aircraft and weapons wreckage burned for two hours. There were 14,000 gallons of JP-4 aboard the B-58.

The pod surrounding the BA-53 and the warhead were badly damaged by fire, which essentially destroyed the HE and pit. The left-forward MK 43 was extensively damaged, including a ruptured tritium reservoir. The right-forward bomb had fire damage; the basic assemblies of the two aft MK 43s were intact, and their interiors were relatively undamaged and the HE in excellent condition. During recovery operations on December 9, the secondary of the left forward MK 43 burst into flame, and the fire burned itself out. The next day, when this secondary was moved, it ignited again and was extinguished with sand.

In November 2000, parts of the B-58 and radioactive soil were dug up and replaced by clean dirt, as part of the post-deactivation of the airbase after the Air Force moved out in 1991. Unsalvageable parts of the plane had been buried several hundred yards from the crash site. Wreckage of the burned weapons had been sent to Oak Ridge after the crash in 1964. Four B-58s crashed at Grissom between 1964 and 1969. 

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, pp.275-277.


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## mhansen2

9 - 11 December

No reported incidents.


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## mhansen2

12 December

1957 – B-52 / Fairchild AFB, near Spokane, Washington

At 4:02 PM PST, a B-52D crashed shortly after takeoff during a training mission from Fairchild AFB near Spokane, Washington. The takeoff roll and climb appeared normal; however, soon after the landing gear was retracted and the aircraft was approximately 100 to 200 feet above the ground, the plane's nose pitched up steeply.

After climbing nose-high to about 1,500 feet, flames were seen coming from all eight engines. The aircraft's nose then dropped and the plane banked to the right and descended rapidly. At a height of about 400 to 500 feet above ground, the electronic countermeasures operator ejected; the radar navigator ejected at about 300 feet. The pilot and navigator ejected upon impact. Only one of nine crewmembers, the tail gunner, survived the crash; he had initiated bailout at an altitude of 450 to 500 feet, but was still aboard the aircraft when it crashed and was destroyed by impact and fire. Among the dead crewmen was the commanding officer of the SAC bomb wing to which the aircraft was assigned. Wreckage was strewn over a radius of more than 1,000 feet in a stubble field about a mile west of the airbase.

Although the Air Force has never indicated whether or not nuclear weapons were aboard the aircraft, this crash was cited in a February 1991 EPA report as having involved nuclear materials.

Chuck Hansen, “The Swords of Armageddon,” Vol. VII, p.245.


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## mhansen2

This thread has run its course and is at an end.  I hope some found it useful.


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