“In the history of terrible mistakes, accidentally dropping a nuclear bomb on your own country has to rank pretty damn high. That’s exactly what happened when a really, really stupid accident resulted in America tossing an atom bomb on rural South Carolina.”

Greg Newkirk — Business Insider (November 2014)

On March 11, 1958, an Air Force B-47 Stratojet was making its way to the United Kingdom from the Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia. It was sent out with the intention of helping out in Operation Snow Flurry, but it never made it.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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As the plane was cruising over South Carolina, the pilots noticed that a fault light in the cockpit was indicating a problem with the locking pin on the bomb harnesses in the cargo bay.

“You see, back then, the plane was required to carry nuclear weapons at all times just in case a war broke out with the Soviet Union.

The nuclear bomb in question was as 26-kiloton Mark 6, even more powerful than the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Great idea, right?

Air Force Captain Bruce Kulka was acting as the navigator on the flight and decided to go back and check out the problem.

While pulling himself up from the plane floor, he reached around the bomb to steady himself, but ended up grabbing the bomb ‘s emergency release pin instead.

Whoops.

Kulka could only look on in horror as the bomb dropped to the floor, pushed open the bomb bay doors, and fell 15,000 feet toward rural South Carolina.”

Not scared yet?

“Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, investigative journalist Eric Schlosser discovered that on January 23, 1961, a B-52 bomber broke up mid-air, dropping two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs over Goldsboro, North Carolina.

While one bomb never activated, the second one had its trigger mechanisms engage and its parachute open, two things that only happen when the bomb is intended to explode on target.

In fact, only one low-voltage trigger kept it from detonating upon landing.”

PS — As part of the implementation of the International Treaty on Open Skies, a Russian An-30B surveillance aircraft will fly over Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg from March 11 to March 15 2019.

So, let us pray that Russian technology is reliable and let us hope there is no “Captain Kulka” on board that plane!

A joint U.S.-Norwegian mission will conduct a similar surveillance flight on the U.S. observation aircraft OC-135B over the territory of Russia on March 11-16.

REFERENCES

In 1958, America Accidentally Dropped A Nuclear Bomb On South Carolina — Business Insider

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On This Day — American B-47 Drops Nuke on South Carolina Family Home (March 11 1958)