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Declassified report: Two nuclear bombs nearly detonated in North Carolina

danarhea

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(CNN) -- On a January night in 1961, a U.S. Air Force bomber broke in half while flying over eastern North Carolina. From the belly of the B-52 fell two bombs -- two nuclear bombs that hit the ground near the city of Goldsboro.

A disaster worse than the devastation wrought in Hiroshima and Nagasaki could have befallen the United States that night. But it didn't, thanks to a series of fortunate missteps.

Only a miraculous mishap kept much of North Carolina from becoming a nuclear wasteland in 1961. The bomb that came closest to going off was 190 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Article is here.
 
Interesting read. Thanks for posting that.
 
That's seriously ****ing crazy.

Imagine if it had gone off. Would the government accept responsibility or shift that burden to someone else?
 
Only a miraculous mishap kept much of North Carolina from becoming a nuclear wasteland in 1961. The bomb that came closest to going off was 190 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Article is here.

There are also a slew of other mishaps usually involving faulty equipment that nearly led to global nuclear war. Reading through them makes me think that of all the parallel histories in all the parallel universes, ours is the only one that managed not to nuke ourselves to hell already.
 
this close:
... the hydrogen bombs it was carrying became separated. One fell into a field near Faro, North Carolina, its parachute draped in the branches of a tree; the other plummeted into a meadow off Big Daddy's Road.

Jones found that of the four safety mechanisms in the Faro bomb, designed to prevent unintended detonation, three failed to operate properly. When the bomb hit the ground, a firing signal was sent to the nuclear core of the device, and it was only that final, highly vulnerable switch that averted calamity.
US nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina

i was an eight year old kid. my Dad had planned a surprise 30th birthday for my Mom for the following day. like the bomb, the birthday did not go off as Dad, B4 bag in hand, had to immediately depart barksdale afb for goldsboro
made a point to be nearby when Dad and his cohort sat around shooting the breeze upon their return. then overheard how close my carolina residing grandparents had been to potential annihilation
those nuclear bomb drills we had in school took on a new meaning thereafter
 
"Nuclear bomb safety systems worked as intended."
 
The more nuclear weapons in existence, the greater the risk of an accident. There is no reason for any nation to have more weapons than required to blow up half the planet.
 
Only a miraculous mishap kept much of North Carolina from becoming a nuclear wasteland in 1961.

It would not have become a nuclear wasteland. The source actually, despite saying it would have caused devastation greater than Hiroshima, admits that casualties would have been much smaller given that it was not a highly-populated area. Not saying that somehow it would have all been okay, but you are overestimating the impact a bit.
 
It would not have become a nuclear wasteland. The source actually, despite saying it would have caused devastation greater than Hiroshima, admits that casualties would have been much smaller given that it was not a highly-populated area. Not saying that somehow it would have all been okay, but you are overestimating the impact a bit.

The first one would have done no damage because apparently it was never capable of detonation, and the second one had four safety systems in place preventing detonation. It wasn't "luck" that they didn't go off, they were designed that way.
 
The first one would have done no damage because apparently it was never capable of detonation, and the second one had four safety systems in place preventing detonation. It wasn't "luck" that they didn't go off, they were designed that way.

Maybe, but I was just noting that, even if the nukes had detonated, it would not have been Mad Max over a wide swath of North Carolina.
 
Maybe, but I was just noting that, even if the nukes had detonated, it would not have been Mad Max over a wide swath of North Carolina.

True. Although for North Carolina, Mad Max might be an improvement.
 
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