This day in US nuclear accidents

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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

 

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6 - 7 August

No reported incidents.

 

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8 August

No reported incidents.

 

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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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10 - 20 August

No reported incidents.

 

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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.

 

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22 - 23 August

No reported incidents.

 

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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

 

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25 - 30 August

No reported incidents.

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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

 

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3 - 14 September

No reported incidents.

 

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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.

 

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16 - 17 September

No reported incidents.

 

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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.

 

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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

 

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20 - 24 September

No reported incidents.

 

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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.

 

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26 - 30 September

No reported incidents.