Looks Like All Of You In N.C. In '61 Had A Lucky Escape!!!

[colchar]

Scary shit:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24183879

[DukePA]

Yup. This happened right up the road from me. Scary shit.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I moved to Smithfield in late 1979, and I have heard brief stories about this, but never the "whole story". One of the rumors is that one of the bombs was never recovered - it's buried in a field somewhere near Goldsboro. Don't know if that's true or not, but that's the rumor. According to the story linked, there were only two bombs, both recovered. Maybe, maybe not!

The plane was on a routine flight when it began to break up over North Carolina on 23 January 1961.

As it was breaking apart, a control inside the cockpit released the two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs over Goldsboro.

One fell to the ground unarmed. But the second "assumed it was being deliberately released over an enemy target - and went through all its arming mechanisms save one, and very nearly detonated over North Carolina," Mr Schlosser told the BBC's Katty Kay.

Only one safety mechanism, a single low-voltage switch, prevented disaster, he said.

[CathyCA]

I wasn't born for another 9 months, but my folks lived 8.5 miles from Faro where the plane crashed, and where one of the undetonated bombs is still in the ground. My mom remembers that day very well.

Scary stuff.

[CathyCA]

The link to this article appeared in my Facebook feed this morning:

http://www.ourstate.com/hydrogen-bombs-north-carolina/

[CameronBornAndBred]

I am happy that my parents didn't get nuked.

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

Not just Tarheels would have been clobbered. That dang thing would have reached far and wide. We were newlyweds at U. of Illinois. I don't remember anything about it out there.
Love, Ima