Nuclear finders keepers?

[NutmegCT]

Fifty one years ago today a USAF B-52G suffered structural failure of one wing in mid-air and crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina. Three crewmembers were killed and two Mark 39 H-bombs were temporarily lost.

One bomb was recovered intact (below) while the second was only partially recovered.

Although the tritium and plutonium portions of the second bomb were recovered, the uranium portion is still buried in the swampy area. The Air Force purchased an easement to deter anyone from disturbing the area.

The recovered bomb's parachute was deployed, a result of five out of six of the automatic arming mechanisms being activated. Explosive yield of the Mark 39 was between 3 and 4 megatons.

One crew member, Lt. Adam Mattocks, is the only man known to have successfully bailed out of the top hatch of a B-52 without an ejection seat. He briefly discusses his experience at the 50 year reunion of the crash survivors:

Reunion

Yikes!

Tom

 

[DrEntropy]

And now we have space junk to concern us, too.

 

[John Turney]

I've done a fair amount of work at Travis AFB in Fairfield, CA. Originally named Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base, the base was renamed Travis Air Force Base in 1951 for Brigadier General Robert F. Travis, who was killed on 5 August 1950 when a B-29 Superfortress on which he was acting as command pilot crashed 5 minutes after takeoff, killing General Travis and 18 others. Although the aircraft was carrying a Mark 4 nuclear weapon, the bomb's plutonium pit was carried aboard another aircraft, rendering a nuclear explosion impossible. However, the 5000 lbs. of high explosives in the weapon exploded about twenty minutes after the crash.

 

[Guest]

Some good ol' boy will cut it up fer scrap!

https://www.wlox.com/story/16568685/atf-begins-investigation-into-gulfport-explosion

 

[DrEntropy]

Been in and out of Travis a number of times, John. A good friend (and fellow 601st Photo Sq. member) is teaching high school physics out that way.

...Travis died on a Saturday.

 

[billspit]

I used to live in Florence, SC. Back in the 50s, a bomber (I guess B-52 or B-47) accidently dropped a nuclear bomb on Mars Bluff, a community not too far away. The detonator went off, but the bomb wasn't armed and obviously didn't.

Also in the 50s, a B-47 ditched a hydrogen bomb off Savannah, GA when it appeared it was going to crash. They still haven't found that one.

 

[CZ_Dave]

Kind of scary

when you think about it.

 

[Guest]

Also in the 50s, a B-47 ditched a hydrogen bomb off Savannah, GA when it appeared it was going to crash. They still haven't found that one.

Shhhhhh! :wink:

 

[CZ_Dave]

Does Doctor Stangelove

OR

How I Learned to Stop Worrying

And Love the Bomb!

Come to mind??? :hammer:

 

[Billm]

Did they ever find the nukes that one of our planes dropped in the Med 20 years ago? (off the coast of Italy I think).
BillM

 

[billspit]

Did they ever find the nukes that one of our planes dropped in the Med 20 years ago? (off the coast of Italy I think).
BillM

Yes they did. It took a while though. I think it was off Spain. Or at least the incident I am thinking about ocurred there.

 

[Billm]

Yes- I knew it was around there somewhere

 

[DrEntropy]

Spain.

The one off the Carolina coast is still MIA. "Broken Arrow".

 

[PC]

If anybody wants the details, Science Channel is showing this right now:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]America's Lost H-Bomb

TV-PG, CC

A deadly threat lurks just a few miles off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. A thermo-nuclear weapon is ejected and lost during a war game between U.S. bombers and fighters. Can U.S. military experts retrieve the weapon before someone else tries to?[/QUOTE]


They'll be showing it a couple more times this weekend.
https://science.discovery.com/tv-schedules/special.html?paid=48.16352.118063.0.0