An atomic bomb can also be lost. American bombs disappeared in the sea and mud

For the first time ever, the Americans experienced the fear of their own weapons on February 14, 1950, in the crash of the heavy strategic bomber Convair B-36B. The machine, then still equipped with outdated piston engines, began to burn from the planned twenty-four hours after seven hours of flight and quickly lost altitude.

The crew did their best in the situation. She headed for the sparsely populated coast of British Columbia, consistently avoiding Canadian airspace, where she led the plane over water. Seventeen men of the crew jumped out, twelve of them survived the emergency bomber and later rescued them.

However, in addition to the five victims, the incident brought another tragedy. The cargo carried by the aircraft was lost. That load was a 30-kiloton nuclear bomb. However, the US Air Force did not want to share this information with the Canadian government for a long time. Due to this, teams of specialists did not arrive at the probable crash site until 19 days later. However, experts did not find the bomb, which contained natural uranium and 2,300 kilograms of conventional explosives, but allegedly not enough plutonium to trigger a detonation. Where she ended up is still unknown.

Years later, as authorities declassified the material on the case, the public experienced another shock. The crew of the crashed bomber moved along the route from Alaska to California. The operation was a simulation of a combat takeoff to Moscow, whose position was taken by San Francisco during the exercise. If the plane crashed later, it would not fall into the wooded wilderness or the cold sea, but on the densely populated coast of California.

Shining waves from Morocco

The Boeing B-47 Stratojet, which flew from Florida's MacDill Air Force Base to Morocco in 1956, was also infamous. He managed the first refueling in flight over the Atlantic without any problems, but he did not manage the second over the Mediterranean. The plane disappeared from the radar and, despite considerable efforts by the Navy, it was never possible to trace the crew or the wreckage at the site of the expected crash.

Should that be a problem? Certainly, because the cost of this machine was "two separate capsules carrying the material of nuclear weapons." At that time, the Americans were fogging up in large numbers and did not specify what exactly the plane was carrying. However, the usual travel equipment of these machines included thermonuclear bombs Mark 15, which in two pieces would mean a destructive potential of 3.4 megatons. It probably still lies at the bottom of the Mediterranean.

One arrow after another

In the following years, the United States experienced three incidents that its air force could not frame. The first occurred in February 1958, when a collision of an F-86 fighter with a B-47 bomber over Georgia required an immediate flight interruption and an emergency landing. The bomber's risky maneuver was complicated by the fact that there was a bomb on board. She would be able to erase the nearby town of Savannah. The crew managed to land on an excellent, but the unlocked explosive cargo, which they dropped into the waters around the island of Tybee, could not be traced.

Another "Broken Arrow" came just a month later. The result was a crater eleven meters deep and over twenty wide. The blast was a matter of conventional charge, fortunately only six people were injured at the time, including two children. The government paid them hefty compensation, but they certainly didn't want to admit what happened to them.

But it was still unbelievable luck. The bomb, which fell from a height of 4,600 meters into a sparsely populated area, belonged to the US nuclear arsenal. In the event of an explosion, an area of ​​two square kilometers would be immediately affected, but fortunately the nuclear charge did not activate.

Drama over North Carolina

By 1961, the fortunes of the military were probably tired. The B-52 bomber flying over North Carolina had an acute problem at the time, losing fuel due to a technical fault. Three minutes after the failure was discovered, it was 17,000 liters lighter and practically flew only on the fumes and good word of the pilots.

There wasn't much to think about, so before the crew jumped, they dropped two Mark 39 bombers over the swamps near Goldsboro. And that's how the drama began. When the rescue team arrived at the crash site, the scattered wreckage of the plane covered five square kilometers of tobacco plantations. But where are the bombs?

From the found fragments of the bombing device, it was evident that part of the activation mechanisms of the charges had already been triggered. More specifically, at least one of the bombs was triggered by three of the four triggering systems, including a parachute, which provides the bomb with a soft landing on the target. The first dangerous piece can be found without major problems. And as military analyst Daniel Ellsberg later confirms on the basis of declassified documents, he didn't miss much for the full-blown explosion.

And the second bomb? At a speed of 310 meters per second, it sank somewhere in the swamps. Its stabilizers can be found at a depth of six meters below the surface. As well as an insurance policy that was already in the "unlocked" position. The bomb itself has not been picked up to this day, and the US military has preferentially bought the land in the intended impact area to prevent entry.

According to North Carolina researchers, the sought-after critical part could be located at a depth of 54 meters below the surface. Civil and military experts are still debating whether it can really explode.

A bomb that slid into the sea

The US military was able to boil its allies several times with unexpected losses of its own atomic bombs. For example, a significant cooling of diplomatic relations has caused the "disappearance" of a one-megaton nuclear weapon aboard the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga. The weapon was ready to be mounted on the delivered aircraft, but due to the failure of the ammunition elevator securing technology, it slipped into the sea.

The Americans originally claimed that the incident took place over the impenetrable depths of the Pacific, a journey from a base in the Philippines 500 miles from the nearest coast. But as it turned out later, the whole incident took place just a hundred kilometers from the Ryukyu Islands, ie in the territorial waters of Japan. And the Japanese have had a very careful relationship with nuclear weapons, especially those of North American origin, since World War II.

Glow under the ice

The conflict from Greenland, where the Americans leased the space of the Thule strategic air base on Danish territory, also falls into a similar category. The Danes, who had proudly been among the non-nuclear states since 1957, had no idea that their allies were also storing nuclear weapons for immediate use.

This only became apparent during the B-52 bomber accident, which dropped four hydrogen bombs at Northern Star Bay during an emergency maneuver. The explosion of conventional charges led to the disruption of bombs and extensive contamination of the entire zone with radioactivity. It was nothing to keep secret, so the United States had to admit the paint, pay hefty compensation, and clean up the area.