USAF nearly nuked North Carolina in 1961

[Saint Kitten]

Rename it the tuna

Can I please have a tuna sushi roll?

They have those? I thought they just did squid

[Sebtopiaris]

Can I please have a tuna sushi roll?

They have those? I thought they just did squid

How about salmon?

[Kannap]

I live near Goldsboro...

I live about 147 miles west of Goldsboro.

[The Treorai]

They have those? I thought they just did squid

How about salmon?

Am I the only one who pronounces the "L"?

Also, what I want to know, is what the actual fuck they were doing flying a live fucking nuke over a motherfucking populated area?

Like, seriously. What nimrod said "Yeah, this seems like a sound strategy, Cotton."

[AiliailiA]

Rename it the tuna

Can I please have a tuna sushi roll?

This is a thread about a safety system failure involving a hydrogen bomb. It is not a sushi bar.

[Uieurnthlaal]

Can I please have a tuna sushi roll?

This is a thread about a safety system failure involving a hydrogen bomb. It is not a sushi bar.

Everything is a sushi bar, if you look at it the right way.

[Saint Kitten]

How about salmon?

Am I the only one who pronounces the "L"?

Also, what I want to know, is what the actual fuck they were doing flying a live fucking nuke over a motherfucking populated area?

Like, seriously. What nimrod said "Yeah, this seems like a sound strategy, Cotton."

Wait you're not supposed to? That's why they kept looking at me..

[AiliailiA]

How about salmon?

Am I the only one who pronounces the "L"?

Also, what I want to know, is what the actual fuck they were doing flying a live fucking nuke over a motherfucking populated area?

Like, seriously. What nimrod said "Yeah, this seems like a sound strategy, Cotton."

1961 is about when Chrome Dome was being run, and after Head Start.

So yeah, they were flying around with live nukes. Some of the missions were very long (due to the B-52's excellent range and also midair refuelling) but they had to take off and land sometime.

[Wind in the Willows]

I don't know about you, but this is enough to make me move to Iceland forever.

Isn't Iceland's awesomeness enough to do that?

Yes, it is.

[AiliailiA]

Btw, does the link to "the document" on the Guardian site work for anyone? For me, it just leads to a paragraph describing the document.

This document was written on 22 October 1969 by Parker F Jones, the supervisor of the nuclear weapons safety department at Sandia national laboratories. The document has recently been declassified having been acquired under freedom of information provisions by the investigative reporter Eric Schlosser for his new book Command and Control. It is published here for the first time.

In the document, Jones gives his response to a passage in a book by Dr Ralph Lapp, a physicist involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the first nuclear bombs, that describes the accident in 1961 in which two hydrogen bombs were dropped inadvertently over North Carolina. An extract of Lapp's book is reprinted on the left hand column of the first page of this document, and Jones's expert response is printed on the right hand column.

The second page of the document is all in Jones's words, giving his expert opinion on the serious nature of the accident and how close America came to catastrophe

[Colura]

If that scares you, imagine what the Soviets must have been using at the same time

[Ayreonia]

How about salmon?

Am I the only one who pronounces the "L"?

Also, what I want to know, is what the actual fuck they were doing flying a live fucking nuke over a motherfucking populated area?

Like, seriously. What nimrod said "Yeah, this seems like a sound strategy, Cotton."

Sounds about right for the Chair Force.

[Eduardastan]

Come to Australia, the climate's great!

No! Come to Garden Grove, California! Nothing ever happens there! Your chances of dying in Garden Grove is zero. Mostly because nothing interesting ever happens there. (except for maybe the Tet festival http://daytrippen.com/blog/events/tet-f ... rove-2013/ )

[European Socialist Republic]

If that scares you, imagine what the Soviets must have been using at the same time

In 1961? Coincidentally, that's the year the Soviets tested the Tsar Bomba.

[Yes Im Biop]

They also LOST a nuke off the coast at one point to...How the fuck do you lose a WMD?!

[Lophozia]

They also LOST a nuke off the coast at one point to...How the fuck do you lose a WMD?!

If I remember correctly, the protocol used to be to eject the bombs if the aircraft was going to crash. I believe it was to prevent the bomb from accidentally detonating in the crash/fire/explosion

[New England and The Maritimes]

They also LOST a nuke off the coast at one point to...How the fuck do you lose a WMD?!

If I remember correctly, the protocol used to be to eject the bombs if the aircraft was going to crash. I believe it was to prevent the bomb from accidentally detonating in the crash/fire/explosion

Warheads really don't "accidentally" detonate. They have to be armed because the firing sequence is too complicated to be randomly initiated.

[Xsyne]

Btw, does the link to "the document" on the Guardian site work for anyone? For me, it just leads to a paragraph describing the document.

This document was written on 22 October 1969 by Parker F Jones, the supervisor of the nuclear weapons safety department at Sandia national laboratories. The document has recently been declassified having been acquired under freedom of information provisions by the investigative reporter Eric Schlosser for his new book Command and Control. It is published here for the first time.

In the document, Jones gives his response to a passage in a book by Dr Ralph Lapp, a physicist involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the first nuclear bombs, that describes the accident in 1961 in which two hydrogen bombs were dropped inadvertently over North Carolina. An extract of Lapp's book is reprinted on the left hand column of the first page of this document, and Jones's expert response is printed on the right hand column.

The second page of the document is all in Jones's words, giving his expert opinion on the serious nature of the accident and how close America came to catastrophe

Scroll down.

[Scapania]

If I remember correctly, the protocol used to be to eject the bombs if the aircraft was going to crash. I believe it was to prevent the bomb from accidentally detonating in the crash/fire/explosion

Warheads really don't "accidentally" detonate. They have to be armed because the firing sequence is too complicated to be randomly initiated.

Today they don't...this was over 50 years ago

[Xsyne]

If I remember correctly, the protocol used to be to eject the bombs if the aircraft was going to crash. I believe it was to prevent the bomb from accidentally detonating in the crash/fire/explosion

Warheads really don't "accidentally" detonate. They have to be armed because the firing sequence is too complicated to be randomly initiated.

The concern would be that the conventional explosives used as a trigger would go off and destroy the bomb, spreading radioactive material over a large area.

[Fnordgasm 5]

They also LOST a nuke off the coast at one point to...How the fuck do you lose a WMD?!

I don't know.. perhaps you could ask George W Bush?

[Vicswampia]

Move to Canada, we have hockey.

Oh wait, Washington is part of America...

[Vicswampia]

Come to Australia, the climate's great!

The English, on the other hand...

[Xsyne]

Warheads really don't "accidentally" detonate. They have to be armed because the firing sequence is too complicated to be randomly initiated.

Today they don't...this was over 50 years ago

No, it really is too complicated to be randomly initiated. You have to simultaneously detonate multiple conventional explosives payloads in order to simultaneously detonate multiple fission bombs in order to trigger the fusion reaction that results in the thermonuclear explosion.

[Xsyne]

They also LOST a nuke off the coast at one point to...How the fuck do you lose a WMD?!

Pretty easily if it's under thousands of feet of water.