Please consider doing a video on the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash. A B-52 bomber carrying 2 megaton Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke apart mid-flight over Goldsboro, North Carolina. The bombs crash landed in a farmers field! One of the bombs had 3 out of 4 arming mechanisms activated during the crash and it almost completed all steps needed to arm itself, including charging the firing capacitors…so basically rural eastern NC was very close to being wiped off the map by a nuclear bomb 250x more destructive than the one dropped on Hiroshima. It’s such a mind blowing story, and me being a born and raised North Carolinian would love to see you cover it! It’s most definitely worth a google, so please consider this for one of your “stranger than fiction” videos.
What if the nuclear weapons which fell from the plane had detonated near Goldsboro, North Carolina? I know it would result in WWIII but I want to hear what would play out leading up to it.
This week I visited the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, and when I saw that a B-52 carrying two 24 megaton bombs crashed at Goldsboro, NC, I took a picture to remind me later to look up what happened.
So I've just looked it up just now, and while the timeline at the Museum says the crash occurred on January 23, 1962, I cannot find anything about a B-52 crashing at Goldsboro, NC, on that particular date.
What I did find is a Wikipedia article that says a B-52 carrying two nuclear bombs crashed near Goldsboro, NC, on January 24, 1961. One year earlier. It also says the B-52 was carrying two 3-4 megaton bombs, and not two 24 megaton bombs, as per the Museum.
Now I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next nutjob but I have a tough time believing there were two almost identical accidents at the same location almost exactly one year apart. So either the Museum has the wrong information, or Wikipedia does. Or...do they? Cue Twilight Zone theme.
On that note, next time you're in Vegas check out the Twilight Zone minigolf in Bally's, and for extra fun wear clothes that stand out under a blacklight.
*went
It was large enough to create a 100% kill zone within a radius of 8.5 miles according to the Air Force, so let's go with that to start. Assume the second bomb was simply destroyed and did not detonate. However, they separated from the B-52 about 2000 ft above ground, so let's go with an as designed aerial detonation.
Obviously, a lot of people would have died. But how does this incident effect the US, the USSR, and indeed the whole world? What happens to the arms race? Does it lead to WWIII?
Explain.
http://www.history.com/news/document-reveals-1961-nuclear-close-call-over-north-carolina
Given the tension of the Cold War at the time, and a Kennedy administration just days into office, how does the U.S. react? Do we fire on the USSR starting WW3? How does the U.S. population react? Do Americans lose trust in their military? How does this effect the Vietnam War?
Edit: Plain Vs. Plane.... whoops.
Wow!!! Insane to know i live In SC, and had no idea this event ever happened!
Of the many bombs onboard, one had 5 of 6 fail-safes failed and the explosion was hanging by a thread.
And the other bomb was....well.....ARMED. In 2013, ReVelle recalled the moment the second bomb's switch was found. “Until my death I will never forget hearing my sergeant say, 'Lieutenant, we found the arm/safe switch.' And I said, 'Great.' He said, 'Not great. It’s on arm.'”
