The Day we almost blew up the world

[waltky]

Can you imagine what the military response would have been had it gone off?

H-Bomb Nearly Blew Up In North Carolina in 1961
September 21, 2013 — A U.S. hydrogen bomb nearly detonated on the nation's east coast, with a single switch averting a blast which would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that flattened Hiroshima, a newly published book says.

In a recently declassified document, reported in a new book by Eric Schlosser, the supervisor of the nuclear weapons safety department at Sandia national laboratories said that one simple, vulnerable switch prevented nuclear catastrophe. The Guardian newspaper published the document (Goldsboro revisited: account of hydrogen bomb near-disaster over North Carolina ? declassified document | World news | theguardian.com ) on Saturday. Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina on Jan. 24, 1961 after a B-52 bomber broke up in flight. One of the bombs apparently acted as if it was being armed and fired — its parachute opened and trigger mechanisms engaged.

Parker F. Jones at the Sandia National Laboratories analyzed the accident in a document headed "How I learned to mistrust the H-Bomb." "The MK39 Mod 2 bomb did not possess adequate safety for the airborne-alert role in the B-52," he wrote. When the B-52 disintegrates in the air it is likely to release the bombs in "a near normal fashion," he wrote, calling the safety mechanisms to prevent accidental arming "not complex enough."

The document said the bomb had four safety mechanisms, one of which is not effective in the air. When the aircraft broke up, two others were rendered ineffective. "One simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe!" Jones wrote, adding that it could have been "bad news — in spades" if the switch had shorted. Schlosser discovered the document, written in 1969, through the Freedom of Information Act. It is featured in his new book on nuclear arms, "Command and Control," which reports that through FOI he discovered that at least 700 "significant" accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968.

- See more at: H-Bomb Nearly Blew Up In North Carolina in 1961 | CNS News

 

[Mr. H.]

So THAT'S why I was hiding under my desk in 1st grade...

 

[namvet]

the Norwegian rocket incident 1995

never published by the media because it simply never happened. in the early morning hours of January 25, 1995, the US and Russia almost went to the brink. this incident was post cold war but...............

It was one of the most frightening moments since the Cuban missile crisis. In the early morning hours of January 25, 1995 a Russian radar crew spotted a fast-moving object above the Barents Sea at Russia's northern border. A missile they couldn't identify. The Russians have always viewed U.S. nuclear submarines as the greatest threat; a Trident missile launched from that area could reach Russia's mainland in 10 minutes. At the Russian radar station, the crew saw the missile suddenly separate into several sections just as the warheads of a Trident missile would. Their trajectory seemed to be carrying them towards Moscow. In Moscow, a signal went out to the nuclear briefcases which always accompany President Boris Yeltsin and top defense officials. Russia had established a deadline: they're supposed to detect an attack, assess it and reach a decision on retaliation within 10 minutes.

There were only 5 minutes left. Urgent radio contact was made with Russian submarine commanders. Orders were given to go into a state of combat readiness and the military issued orders to the Strategic Forces to prepare to possibly receive the next command, which would have been the launch order.

For 4 minutes, the Russian commanders waited for the order to launch. The Russian strategic plans permit launching Russian missiles before enemy missiles hit Russian territory. Eight minutes after the alarm was first sounded, the mysterious objects fell into the seas. The decision to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike was averted; the Russian forces stood down.

Hours later, the Russians learned that the unidentified object had been a scientific rocket launched from Norway to study the Northern lights. The Russian government had been notified weeks earlier the launch was coming, but no one told the radar crew.

The Norwegian Rocket Incident | Russian Roulette - A Close Call? | FRONTLINE | PBS
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there's more. it may have been excessive vodka in Boris Yeltsin's blood stream that saved the world. it was reported he was drunk as a skunk which caused the delay in launch. and saved the world. as mentioned here:

It was widely reported that Boris Yeltsin drank too much. The evening he was awakened in the night to decide on the fate of humanity, he might have been drunk. These are not the best of circumstances in which to decide humanity's future. It is worth reflecting on our current global system of nuclear controls that would result in a man with a highly publicized drinking problem being in charge that evening of our common future. If Boris Yeltsin had acted more hastily and launched what he believed was a counter-attack at the United States, the United States would certainly have countered the Russian attack. The results are almost too catastrophic to contemplate. Tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of people could have died that night. The survivors might have envied the dead.

source
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjwcqWwsoSw]1-25-95-Nuke War Almost Happened - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Ed_Brown]

i grew up about an hour south of Goldsboro NC ... born 8 years after this event in 61'. Had that flimsy switch, the last in a series of 4 switches, failed to defuse ... it would have killed my parents and millions of others. Those H bombs were the equivalent of 4 million tons of TNT ....plus the fallout. I was so fascinated by this that I decided to write a report myself titled: Conspiracy Theory No More: The US Military DID Drop 2 Hydrogen Bombs on NC in 61' - which includes the actual 2 page document.

 

[Politico]

This kinda stuff happens all the time.