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Originally posted by GavriloPrincip322:
SNIP FOR BREVITY

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Originally posted by 09Recon:

With very few exceptions, the 9/11 related conspiracies are nothing more than mental masturbation. The same people who believe the government knew about the anthrax attacks are likely to be the same people babbling about how the WTC towers were brought down in a controlled implosion. Mustn't let facts jump in there.

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Originally posted by eyesight01:
The sky is falling!!!!
What is the big deal here. Da ya tinks we hauled those things around on the back of a pickup truck?
Nuclear weapons have to be maintained frequently. In my time they were flown in and out by C-130s. My favorite day was NUKE swap out day. The APs would go into ballistic mode. Only a total fool would not know they were about to move a NUKE. They had the first try at an armored up vehicle. Made by Chrysler. It liked to twist off the rear drive axles. They were supposed to go to Vietnam for convoy protection but ended up parked around SAC for NUKE convoy guard. The only aircraft in was a C-130. Carrying a NUKE no other aircraft was allowed to be in the approach. If the axle didn't twist off the "armored" vehicle with several other light vehicles crammed with APs a tug with bomb cart convoy would approach the C-130. APs would establish a secure area, by encircling the C-130 with ARs prominently displayed. Anyone on the base parimiter which was unsecured, would clearly know the target aircraft. They would remove the NUKE and place it on the bomb cart, line up and escort it to the NUKE storage. Load up the NUKE going back for service and escort that back to the waiting C-130. Place it in the C-130 and it would depart. The armored vehicles and the escort couldn't fly, so it had to go un-escorted from there. NUKES flew every day over the U.S. somewhere.
Then there was CHROME DOME, a NUKE aloft 24/7 in the world somewhere. The refueled was the KC-97 a radial engine aircraft that couldn't fly as fast as the B-52. To mid-air refuel a B-52 with a KC-97 the two had to "link up" then they had to descend during the entire refueling to keep the B-52 above stall. With the boom attached, if the B-52 pilot was not extremely careful, a very small amount of up control pressure would snap the B-52 in half and the tail would fall off. It did exactly that over Spain and the NUKES went splashing into the MED and into a farmers field. Oops BROKEN ARROW.
The B-52 bomb bay was designed exclusively for the NUKE, it had to be refit for conventional bombs. The NUKE went up between friction pads that held it in place when it was uploaded. During the good old "ALERT" days the crew climbed into the B-52 and sat there until relieved. The relieving crew would arrive via bus and and go through the process of checking the NUKE and taking possession of same. To do so the bomb bay doors had to be opened so you could see the weapon and check out the serial numbers and verify it was there and properly uploaded.
Wives being deprived of their male companion would wait outside the alert facility compound for hubby. It looked like shift change at a factory, it went off so smooth. Right on time the relieved crew would arrive at the gate and pour out. This one morning while the routine process of crew change was going on. Some one got on the intercom and said hey get a load of this, sortie #5 just dropped a NUKE, it's rolling down the ramp and there is a guy running down the ramp with is hands over his ears. Yep NS a guy running way from a nuclear explosion, with his ears covered. A new form of duck and cover. No I'm not going to say where the "incident" happened. Now the who is responsible is going to happen. The base is locked down, none of this is to get to the folks in town. The men don't show up at the alert gate as expected so one of the more "with it" wives, finds a line truck gets on it's radio and inquires as to where her husband is. A line truck parked down at the "incident location" tells her that one of the aircraft just dropped a NUKE and it's going to be a long day. They ask her to make a run to dunkin donuts and they will send a line truck up to pick them up. She complies and tells the clerk at dunkin donuts that they dropped a NUKE out at the base and here husband is stuck there. Not a single person in town knew anything about the incident for at least another 2 seconds after that. Oh yea it made the papers and the nightly snooze, but not the national snooze.
It clearly says on the check list, CHECK, the weapon release switch is in the locked position. It don't say lift the protector and check it, or wiggle it, or even touch it. It says check it. Pilots get in the habit of touching things as they go through the check list. Just one "TOUCH" of the weapon release can and often does cause the weapon to drop. When the bay doors are closed, it sets against them. Sometimes in flight, Ooops the doors can't hold the weight and O, O, gee we just got lighter, what happened. Bombs away, aw snot, this is going to be a long complicated debrief now, ain't it.
So someone flew and aerial weapon on an aircraft, now that's real news. There is no way possible they could have had them armed. The safest way to transport them was just the way they did it. Or would everyone prefer and Amtrack crash or Oops what rail yard is that darn bomb in now. The security for ground transportation would have been large, the cost in the hundreds of thousands. Every location it travels through has to be notified. Probably only a company like Hallerberton could handle this one. I can find no be deal here. Must be another slow news day.

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Originally posted by HelloBone:

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Originally posted by eyesight01:
Probably only a company like Hallerberton could handle this one. I can find no be deal here. Must be another slow news day.

This is what I like to see posted. Some insight, a little story and no doom and gloom from the "non-military" members. Thanks eyesight01

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Originally posted by rm444:
Didnt the Air Force do a freefall test in the mid 60s by crashing a KC-135 and a B-52 off the coast of Spain? Lost both ships and crew i think, but recovered the bombs intact.

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Originally posted by popsiq:

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Originally posted by sw614:
popsiq - what do you think would have happened if one of the ACMs had departed the acft?

Answer - certainly not detonation (as the weapons were not armed) and probably nothing at all. Warheads are designed to take shock without spilling their radioactive components.

So what is the big OOPS you refer to?

The only accidental departures were over water. Even then the retrievals were classified so we don't know the condition of the warheads.

I know that a minute quantity of medical grade material being transported by small plane in a 'crash proof' container caused no small concern when the plane went down in Winnipeg two years ago.

A cruise missile's safety systems, I'm not up on. (Aren't old warheads being replaced to make them "safer" and "more reliable"?) I can't find anything about them being tested for integrity in a free drop from 30 000 feet. Sparing accidental detonation which would make the following a moot point, would you like to see one in your back garden?

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Originally posted by FlankerFlyer:
I have never enjoyed reading a thread on this forum as much as this one. TucsonTrek and eyesight01 especially. I love to hear these stories.

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Originally posted by Woody_in_La:
Some more intersting stuff I got from here that I will cut and paste. There is more, but I only did those that happened in the US.

May 22, 1957, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico

A nuclear weapon without its fissile core fell from the bomb bay of a B-36 at an altitude of 1,700 feet and exploded upon impact. The bomber was transporting both the weapon and its fissile core, which had been removed for safety, from Biggs Air Force Base in Texas to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Although parachutes attached to the weapon were deployed during its descent, they did not function properly.

The nuclear weapon was completely destroyed in the detonation which occurred approximately 4.5 miles south of the Kirtland control tower and 0.3 miles west of the Sandia Base reservation, creating a blast crater approximately 25 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep. Fragments of the bomb and debris were scattered over a one mile area. A radiological survey of the area was conducted, but revealed no radioactive contamination beyond the lip of the crater.

November 26, 1958, Chennault Air Force Base, Lake Charles, Louisiana

A B-47 bomber caught fire on the ground, destroying the single nuclear weapon onboard. Contamination was limited to the immediate vicinity of the aircraft wreckage.


July 6, 1959, Barksdale Air Force Base, Bossier City, Louisiana

A C-124 aircraft transporting a nuclear weapon without its fissile core crashed during takeoff, completely destroying the aircraft and nuclear weapon. There was a limited amount of contamination immediately below the destroyed weapon, but not enough to hamper rescue or firefighting operations.


June 7, 1960, McGuire Air Force Base, near Trenton, New Jersey

A BOMARC* air defense missile being stored in a ready state that permitted its launch in two minutes was destroyed after a high pressure helium tank exploded and ruptured the missile's fuel tanks. Although the warhead was also destroyed by the fire, the safety devices acted properly and prevented the weapon's high explosives from detonating. A New York Times article described a near nuclear disaster, noting that the missile "melted under an intense blaze fed by its 100-pound detonator TNT...The atomic warhead apparently dropped into the molten mass that was left of the missile, which burned for forty-five minutes." The ensuing radiation "had been caused when thoriated magnesium metal which forms part of the weapon, caught fire." The Pentagon report said that only the area immediately beneath the weapon and an adjacent elongated area approximately 100 feet long were contaminated by water runoff from fighting the fire.

December 8, 1964, Bunker Hill (now Grissom) Air Force Base, Peru, Indiana

A B-58 bomber lost control and slid off a runway during taxi, causing portions of the five nuclear weapons onboard to burn in an ensuing fire. There were no detonations and contamination was limited to the immediate area of the crash.


October 11, 1965, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio

A C-124 transport aircraft containing nuclear weapons components and a dummy training unit caught fire while being refueled. The fire started at the aft end of the refueling trailer and destroyed the aircraft's fuselage. There were no casualties and the resultant radiation hazard was minimal.

September 19, 1980, Damascus, Arkansas

Fuel vapors from a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) exploded in the missile's silo, blowing off the 740-ton silo door of reinforced concrete and steel and catapulting the missile's nuclear warhead 600 feet. The accident occurred when an Air Force repairman dropped a heavy wrench socket that struck the missile, causing a leak in the missile's pressurized fuel tank. The fuel caught fire and exploded approximately 8 � hours later, killing one person and injuring twenty-one others. The missile's reentry vehicle, which contained a nuclear warhead, was recovered intact.


July 28, 1957, Over the Atlantic Ocean

A C-124 transport aircraft that was having mechanical problems jettisoned two nuclear weapons without their fissile cores off the east coast of the United States. The C-124 was en route from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware when it lost power to its number one and two engines. The crew determined that level flight could not be maintained with the weight of the weapons onboard and decided to jettison the cargo. Although neither weapon detonated, both are presumed to have been damaged from impact with the ocean surface and to have sunk almost instantly. Neither the weapons nor debris were ever found. The C-124 safely landed at an airfield near Atlantic City, New Jersey, with the remaining weapon and nuclear warhead aboard.


February 5, 1958, Savannah River, Georgia

A nuclear weapon without a fissile core was lost following a mid-air collision. A B-47 bomber carrying a nuclear weapon without its fissile core collided with a F-86 aircraft near Savannah, Georgia. Following three unsuccessful attempts to land the plane at Hunter Air Force Base in Georgia, the weapon was jettisoned to avoid the risk of a high explosive detonation at the base. The weapon was jettisoned into the water several miles from the mouth of Savannah River in Wassaw Sound off Tybee Beach, but the precise point of impact is unknown. The weapon's high explosives did not detonate on impact. A subsequent search covering three square miles used divers and sonar devices, but failed to find the weapon. The search was ended on April 16, 1958, and the weapon was considered to be irretrievably lost.


Some accounts of nuclear weapon accidents list a February 12, 1958, accident involving a B-47 near Savannah, Georgia. "The best estimate" of the weapon's location, an earlier DoD narrative noted, "was determined to be 31 degrees 54' 15" North, 80 degrees 54' 45" West." The B-47 was on a simulated combat mission from Florida's Homestead Air Force Base.


September 25, 1959, Off Whidbey Island, Washington

A U.S. Navy P-5M aircraft carrying an unarmed nuclear depth charge without its fissile core crashed into Puget Sound near Whidbey Island, Washington. The weapon was never recovered.

January 24, 1961, Goldsboro, North Carolina

In what nearly became a nuclear catastrophe, a B-52 bomber on airborne alert carrying two nuclear weapons broke apart in midair. The B-52 experienced structural failure in its right wing and the aircraft's resulting breakup released the two weapons from a height of 2,000-10,000 feet. One of the bomb's parachutes deployed properly and that weapon's damage was minimal. However, the second bomb's parachute malfunctioned and the weapon broke apart upon impact, scattering its components over a wide area. According to Daniel Ellsberg, the weapon could have accidentally fired because "five of the six safety devices had failed." Nuclear physicist Ralph E. Lapp supported this assertion, saying that "only a single switch" had "prevented the bomb from detonating and spreading fire and destruction over a wide area."
Despite an extensive search of the waterlogged farmland where the weapon was believed to have landed, the bomb's highly enriched uranium core was never recovered. In order to prevent any discovery of the lost portion of the weapon, the Air Force purchased an easement which required that permission be obtained before any construction or digging could begin in the area. Three crew members were killed in the crash.
The accident was apparently so serious that it was reported to newly-elected President John F. Kennedy. According to Newsweek, President Kennedy was informed after the accident that "there had been more than 60 accidents involving nuclear weapons" since World War II, "including two cases in which nuclear-tipped anti-aircraft missiles were actually launched by inadvertence." As a result of the Goldsboro accident, the U.S. placed many new safety devices on its nuclear arsenal and the Soviet Union was encouraged to do the same.

April 11, 1950, Manzano Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico

A B-29 bomber carrying a nuclear weapon, four spare detonators, and a crew of thirteen crashed into a mountain near Manzano Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The crash occurred within three minutes of departure from the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and resulted in a major fire which was reported by the New York Times as being visible from "fifteen miles." The bomb's casing was completely demolished and its high explosives ignited upon contact with the plane's burning fuel. However, according to the DoD, the four spare detonators and all nuclear components were recovered. A nuclear detonation was not possible because the weapon's core, while being carried on-board, was not placed in the weapon for safety reasons. All thirteen crew members were killed.

November 4, 1958, Dyess Air Force Base, Abilene, Texas

A B-47 bomber carrying a nuclear weapon caught fire during takeoff and crashed from an altitude of 1,500 feet, killing one crew member. The resulting detonation of high explosives created a crater 35 feet in diameter and six feet deep. Nuclear materials from the weapon were recovered near the crash site.


October 15, 1959, Hardinsberg, Kentucky

A B-52 bomber carrying two atomic bombs collided at 32,000 feet with a KC-135 refueling aircraft shortly after initiating refueling procedures near Hardinsberg, Kentucky. The ensuing crash killed 8 crew members and partially burned one of the weapons. No nuclear material was released, however, and the unarmed weapons were recovered intact. Both planes had departed from Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi.


*January 19, 1961, Monticello, Utah

A B-52 bomber carrying one or more nuclear weapons was reported to have exploded in midair about 10 miles north of Monticello, Utah. The bomber had left Biggs AFB near El Paso, Texas, bound for Bismarck, North Dakota, on a routine "round-robin" training mission. Near Monticello the aircraft began climbing from 36,000 to 40,000 feet and soon experienced a violent bump followed by a descending right roll of about 410 degrees, a short period of wings-level, nose-down flight, and then a violent spin. The aircraft descended rapidly and at an elevation of 7,000 feet broke into several pieces that landed within an area two miles wide by 11 � miles long. Observers on the ground said the plane's left-wing engine caught fire, after which there was a midair explosion. Five crewmen were killed in the accident.

October 11, 1957, Homestead Air Force Base, Homestead, Florida

A B-47 bomber carrying a nuclear weapon and its separated fissile core crashed shortly after takeoff. The aircraft crashed in an inhabited area approximately 3,800 feet from the end of the runway, enveloping the nuclear weapon and its fissile core in flames which burned and smoldered for approximately four hours. Although two small explosions occurred during the burning, the weapon core and its carrying case were recovered intact and only slightly damaged by the heat. Approximately one-half of the weapon remained and all its major components were recovered but damaged.


March 11, 1958, Florence, South Carolina

A B-47E accidentally jettisoned an unarmed nuclear weapon without its fissile core at 15,000 feet, which impacted in a sparsely populated area 6-1/2 miles east of Florence, South Carolina. The bomb's high explosive material exploded on impact, causing property damage and several injuries. The aircraft, which was heading to an undisclosed overseas base, returned to Hunter Air Force Base in Georgia without further incident.
Numerous accounts of the accident describe the bomb falling in the garden of Mr. Walter Gregg in Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The high explosive detonation virtually destroyed his house, creating a crater 50-70 feet in diameter and 25-30 feet deep. It caused minor injuries to Mr. Gregg and five members of his family, and damaged five other houses as well as a church. Following the accident, Air Force crews were ordered to "lock in" their nuclear bombs, which reduced the possibility of accidental drops but increased the danger during a plane crash.