The day the U.S. dropped the A-Bomb - on Mars Bluff, South Carolina

[wfgodot]

Also includes the tragic tale of another nuclear weapon which plunged to earth at 700 mph. On North Carolina.

Boy, they got lucky: The incredible story of how the U.S. Air Force accidentally
dropped a nuclear weapon on to a little girl's playhouse in 1958… in South Carolina (Daily Mail)

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The most shocking incident happened in 1958 when the air force accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on a little girls' playhouse in South Carolina.
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[An American B-47E bomber] was carrying a Mark 6 30-kiloton fission bomb.

The captain of the bomber, Bruce Kulka, decided to go into the aircraft's bomb bay to look at the weapon after difficulties during the flight with its locking pin.
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He searched for the pin for 12 minutes before rightly realising it was high up in the bomb bay.

He jumped up to see where he thought the locking pin was but unfortunately chose the emergency bomb-release mechanism for his handhold.

The three-ton bomb broke the doors of the plane open and feel towards the earth.

The captain somehow managed to grab onto something and haul himself to safety.

But shortly afterwards, the plane felt the shock of the nuclear bomb hitting the ground.

Luckily, the nuclear core of the bomb had been stored elsewhere on the plane.
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much more - about the deaths, damage, and injuries resulting from the two incidents, and with pictures, at link above

 

[lonetraveler]

I was nine years old and lived a couple of miles from the site of the bomb that fell near Goldsboro, NC. As far as I know the missing piece of bomb is still underground. Scary situation at the time.

 

[legalmania]

I was nine years old and lived a couple of miles from the site of the bomb that fell near Goldsboro, NC. As far as I know the missing piece of bomb is still underground. Scary situation at the time.

Do you glow in the dark? I wonder if there have been any reports on radiation poisoning. I can imagine you must have had a few nightmares.

 

[shadowangel]

Early 1958 must have been a bad time for the Carolinas... Not only did this incident occur near Mars Bluff, but another B-47 jettisoned a Mark 15 atomic bomb just off the shores of Tybee Island after colliding with an F-86 fighter jet. That particular bomb is still out there, under the sand.

Then, as mentioned in the article, in 1961 a B-52 came apart in mid-air over Goldsboro SC, losing two atomic warheads. One was recovered; the fissionable material of the other is still under the ground there...Somewhere...

I've seen it reported that there are, at a minimum, 11 nuclear devices unaccounted for worldwide (due to accidents, crashes, etc).

And that's just US-owned nuclear devices.

 

[STANDREID]

Yes, I remember when the news bulletin came on about this and the relief that only the bomb's trigger went off.

If I recall, there were something like 3 bombs accidentally dropped in the Mediterranean. I'm not sure if all were recovered.

Also, wasn't there an intentional underground nuclear test that was conducted somewhere in the Southeast US back in this era?

 

[shadowangel]

Yes, I remember when the news bulletin came on about this and the relief that only the bomb's trigger went off.

If I recall, there were something like 3 bombs accidentally dropped in the Mediterranean. I'm not sure if all were recovered.

Also, wasn't there an intentional underground nuclear test that was conducted somewhere in the Southeast US back in this era?

In 1956, a nuclear-armed B-47 was lost over the Med Sea; neither the plane's wreckage or the nulcear cores were ever recovered. In 1957, a C-124 cargo plane jettisoned two of its three atomic weapons over the North Atlantic when the crew thought the plane was about to crash (it didnt).

The west coast wasn't immune, either. In 1950 the crew of a B-36 bomber jettisoned an atomic bomb off the coast of British Columbia when the plane lost power and was subsequently abandoned in-flight.