NUCLEAR DISASTER NARROWLY AVERTED
Goldsboro, North Carolina (JFK+50) On January 23, 1961, just three days after President John F. Kennedy's inauguration, a B-52 bomber carrying two 3.8 megaton hydrogen bombs crashed during a routine Strategic Air Command training mission.
The bomber, which took off from Seymour Johnson AFB near Goldsboro, began leaking fuel and then lost its right wing. As the plane broke apart, the two bombs came loose and plunged to the ground.
The USAF kept this secret for years until 1969 when a document* written by Parker F. Jones, supervisor of the Nuclear Weapons Safety Department at the Sandia National Laboratories**, revealed that all safety mechanisms on the nuclear weapons failed save one, a low-voltage switch. Mr. Jones wrote...
"One simple, dynamo-technology, low-voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe."
*"How I learned to mistrust the H-Bomb"
**SNL are operated by the National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia. It was founded in 1948 & has a budget of $2.4 billion. Locations include Albuquerque, NM & Livermore, CA.
SOURCES
"Document Reveals 1961 Nuclear Close-Call over North Carolina", by Christopher Klein, September 24, 2013, www.history.com/
"Report: U.S. comes close nuclear disaster in 1961", by Cassandra Vinograd, September 21, 2013, The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/
Goldsboro, North Carolina (JFK+50) On January 23, 1961, just three days after President John F. Kennedy's inauguration, a B-52 bomber carrying two 3.8 megaton hydrogen bombs crashed during a routine Strategic Air Command training mission.
The bomber, which took off from Seymour Johnson AFB near Goldsboro, began leaking fuel and then lost its right wing. As the plane broke apart, the two bombs came loose and plunged to the ground.
The USAF kept this secret for years until 1969 when a document* written by Parker F. Jones, supervisor of the Nuclear Weapons Safety Department at the Sandia National Laboratories**, revealed that all safety mechanisms on the nuclear weapons failed save one, a low-voltage switch. Mr. Jones wrote...
"One simple, dynamo-technology, low-voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe."
*"How I learned to mistrust the H-Bomb"
**SNL are operated by the National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia. It was founded in 1948 & has a budget of $2.4 billion. Locations include Albuquerque, NM & Livermore, CA.
SOURCES
"Document Reveals 1961 Nuclear Close-Call over North Carolina", by Christopher Klein, September 24, 2013, www.history.com/
"Report: U.S. comes close nuclear disaster in 1961", by Cassandra Vinograd, September 21, 2013, The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/
Building 800
Sandia National Laboratories (1951)
