B-52 Breakup in '61 over North Carolina - Atom bomb almost detonates

Taz, I never cease to be amazed at the endless depth and width of information posted on this forum by a seemingly endless parade of genuine experts, you included. The range of subject matter seems to have no boundaries and I think it is one of the most interesting chatrooms there is. I tried to get interested in PPRuNE and to participate but it is a closed society of of rather untouchable loftybutts.

 

Bob- I have had my hands on a bunch of nukes, mainly B-61s, so you had to learn something about them. Being that close to them was probably not a great idea, but the serial numbers and switch settings had to be checked and verified by two personnel.

I even dropped a real one, luckily with the physics package removed. Worked as advertised.

 

Indeed. I would like to second your statement Florian. Terry is amazing and I would love to sit and talk with him about this subject, but unfortunately I don't have the necessary DOE/DOD credentials.


EDIT:

I should have thirded it, after Bob's comment above.

 

I'm with Norm. I've dropped countless bombs back in the day. Although I never dropped a Nuke, I did go to Nuclear Weapons School back when I was a Naval Aviator. This doesn't make me an expert on B52's or this particular weapon. But after reading the story, I get the strong impression that some uneducated newspaper man got hold of a newly declassified report and decided to make an exciting story about this event in spite of the facts.

To me this news story sounds like "NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT ALMOST COMMITTED SUICIDE BUT HE WAS SAVED AT THE LAST SECOND". Here's the horrifying and sensational story. First he bought a pistol. Then he bought the ammunition. Then he loaded the gun. Then he took off the safety. At that point he was very close to death. Then he made a decision to pull the trigger. The gun discharged and his life was saved by one single event. As luck would have it, he was at a target range and he intended all along to point the weapon downrange at the target rather than at his head. Had he not made that fateful decision and instead put the weapon to his head, he could be dead right now.

The bomb apparently fell from the aircraft when the B52 came apart. The bomb wasn't armed and it didn't go off. From what I can tell, that's exactly what was supposed to happen. I could be wrong, but I believe this bomb didn't "almost" detonate just like the NRA president didn't "almost" commit suicide the last time he went target shooting. And it didn't "start detonating" any more than loading a pistol means you're "starting suicide".

Yes, weapon safety devices are better than they were in years past, but newspaper reporters haven't changed much.

 

Taz, what's your take on John Fuller's book, 'We Almost Lost Detroit'? For those not familiar, it's about the Fermi nuclear power plant meltdown, and covers many early accidents.

Also, while traveling on the airlines for research of the book, Mr. Fuller overheard Eastern air crews discussing odd happenings onboard their aircraft and looked into their stories. That spawned another book, 'The Ghost of Flight 401', which was made into a movie.

 

Two weeks ago, I spent a few hours in the Bradbury museum at Los Alamos. This museum is a most interesting view of early atomic history through to current weapons.

A safety display of flip cards documented all atomic related incidents. I made a point of looking at the NC accident for additional details. The recent declassified information makes the NC accident standout, yet the earlier documented information was just another incident. Many incidents were documented.

 

Mozella- On early bombs, enriched uranium or plutonium, if the conventional explosives blows, you will get a nuclear reaction. Probably not full yield because we do other things for that, but critical mass is critical mass. We dropped a test weapon out of a B-36 bomb bay accidentally, with no chute deployment, and the conventional explosives detonated on impact, leaving a very large, very deep crater. Test weapon, so no physics package, but everything else was identical. If there had been a physics package, we would have had a nuclear event. That one went through the weapons bay doors.

New weapons have features to prevent that, especially since newer weapons can be employed unretarded and without an airburst. We were lucky on the W53 warhead blown out of the Titan silo. No conventional explosives detonation. That and the B53 were the last of the weapons we NWSSG members really worried about for safety features. The B57 went before the B53 and I taught B57s in the good old days. Replaced with B61s and we all felt much safer. The B61s have been updated nearly continuously, with newer Mods replacing the older ones.

We have been lucky.