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The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:11 pm
by Nathan45
I thought we could use a little more lighthearted stuff on the board lately, this details a B-52s desperate attempt to return to Seymour Johnson (seriously) air base with a leaking fuel tank and 2 mark 39 bombs yielding 3.8 megatons.
Also dropping nucs on Denmark sovereign soil allready has a precedent it appears.
(All due respect to the crew who didn't survive)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNIlXE6Jv ... hyohjO8%3D
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:16 pm
by Nightwatch2
Nathan45 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:11 pm
I thought we could use a little more lighthearted stuff on the board lately, this details a B-52s desperate attempt to return to Seymour Johnson (seriously) air base with a leaking fuel take and 2 mark 39 bombs yielding 3.8 megatons.
Also dropping nucs on Denmark sovereign soil allready has a precedent it appears.
(All due respect to the crew who didn't survive)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNIlXE6Jv ... hyohjO8%3D
As I recall, we’ve also nuked Spain, New Jersey and Arkansas.
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:25 pm
by Nathan45
Nightwatch2 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:16 pm
Nathan45 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:11 pm
I thought we could use a little more lighthearted stuff on the board lately, this details a B-52s desperate attempt to return to Seymour Johnson (seriously) air base with a leaking fuel take and 2 mark 39 bombs yielding 3.8 megatons.
Also dropping nucs on Denmark sovereign soil allready has a precedent it appears.
(All due respect to the crew who didn't survive)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNIlXE6Jv ... hyohjO8%3D
As I recall, we’ve also nuked Spain, New Jersey and Arkansas.
Hey, no one is perfect....
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:23 pm
by MikeKozlowski
Nightwatch2 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:16 pm
Nathan45 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:11 pm
I thought we could use a little more lighthearted stuff on the board lately, this details a B-52s desperate attempt to return to Seymour Johnson (seriously) air base with a leaking fuel take and 2 mark 39 bombs yielding 3.8 megatons.
Also dropping nucs on Denmark sovereign soil allready has a precedent it appears.
(All due respect to the crew who didn't survive)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNIlXE6Jv ... hyohjO8%3D
As I recall, we’ve also nuked Spain, New Jersey and Arkansas.
...AND South Carolina.
Mike
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:26 pm
by Nightwatch2
MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:23 pm
Nightwatch2 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:16 pm
Nathan45 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:11 pm
I thought we could use a little more lighthearted stuff on the board lately, this details a B-52s desperate attempt to return to Seymour Johnson (seriously) air base with a leaking fuel take and 2 mark 39 bombs yielding 3.8 megatons.
Also dropping nucs on Denmark sovereign soil allready has a precedent it appears.
(All due respect to the crew who didn't survive)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNIlXE6Jv ... hyohjO8%3D
As I recall, we’ve also nuked Spain, New Jersey and Arkansas.
...AND South Carolina.
Mike
Oh yeah! And as I recall, that one is still buried in the swamp somewhere waiting to “cook off”!
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:29 pm
by kdahm
Well, one valid target out of five isn't too bad for random chance.....
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2026 8:42 pm
by MikeKozlowski
Nightwatch2 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:26 pm
MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:23 pm
Nightwatch2 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:16 pm
As I recall, we’ve also nuked Spain, New Jersey and Arkansas.
...AND South Carolina.
Mike
Oh yeah! And as I recall, that one is still buried in the swamp somewhere waiting to “cook off”!
Nightwatch,
Ours was Mars Bluff SC - a B-47 on its way to the UK with a live weapon in the bay accidentally got salvoed next to a gentleman's house. The weapon had been loaded improperly in the first place, and it wasn't until a few minutes after takeoff that the UH-OH light went on. The Nav was told to go back to the bay and insert the safety pin, but he got bounced around a bit and in trying to steady himself, he grabbed the EMER JETT handle.
No, really.
It hit just a few feet from the house and the conventional explosive inside let go. The crater is still there and officially accessible every March - I may try and make it this year.
The one you might be thinking of was not long afterwards, when another B-47 loaded for bear started playing tag with a F-86...and there was a collision. The good news is that the Sabre driver got out and was safely recovered. The bad news was that when carrying a weapon, the B-47 was a true and genuine pig at best - and missing a few feet of wing wasn't doing it any favors. The A/C made the decision to jettison the bomb, which he did slightly west of Tybee Island, and got the aircraft and crew down.(He got a DFC for his efforts)
Now - this is where things get interesting. In those long-ago days, there was a capsule of nuclear material that had to be inserted into the bomb to make it combat ready. USAF swears that was no capsule in the aircraft when the bomb was jettisoned, and instead there was a dummy capsule installed. (USAF paperwork seems to back that up, but there's questions.) However, a retired USAF LTC who lived on Tybee insisted for years that the bomb was armed when it was jettisoned, and spent a lot of time trying to find it. It gets more complicated when another report says the bomb WAS armed. And since nobody has
ever conclusively located the bomb, it's still a matter of concern for some folks. The USAF took another crack at it in 2004, and still couldn't locate it, officially giving up once and for all.
Even if it was combat ready, it's unlikely that anyone or anything could get it to go high yield at this point; 68 years downrange - at best it's under several feet of silt and salt water - there wouldn't be a functioning electrical (or for that matter, mechanical) switch or system inside it, and even if you could get the conventional explosive to go, all it's going to do is scatter nuclear material, not give you a yield.
Mike
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2026 8:59 pm
by Nightwatch2
MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 8:42 pm
Nightwatch2 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:26 pm
MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:23 pm
...AND South Carolina.
Mike
Oh yeah! And as I recall, that one is still buried in the swamp somewhere waiting to “cook off”!
Nightwatch,
Ours was Mars Bluff SC - a B-47 on its way to the UK with a live weapon in the bay accidentally got salvoed next to a gentleman's house. The weapon had been loaded improperly in the first place, and it wasn't until a few minutes after takeoff that the UH-OH light went on. The Nav was told to go back to the bay and insert the safety pin, but he got bounced around a bit and in trying to steady himself, he grabbed the EMER JETT handle.
No, really.
It hit just a few feet from the house and the conventional explosive inside let go. The crater is still there and officially accessible every March - I may try and make it this year.
The one you might be thinking of was not long afterwards, when another B-47 loaded for bear started playing tag with a F-86...and there was a collision. The good news is that the Sabre driver got out and was safely recovered. The bad news was that when carrying a weapon, the B-47 was a true and genuine pig at best - and missing a few feet of wing wasn't doing it any favors. The A/C made the decision to jettison the bomb, which he did slightly west of Tybee Island, and got the aircraft and crew down.(He got a DFC for his efforts)
Now - this is where things get interesting. In those long-ago days, there was a capsule of nuclear material that had to be inserted into the bomb to make it combat ready. USAF swears that was no capsule in the aircraft when the bomb was jettisoned, and instead there was a dummy capsule installed. (USAF paperwork seems to back that up, but there's questions.) However, a retired USAF LTC who lived on Tybee insisted for years that the bomb was armed when it was jettisoned, and spent a lot of time trying to find it. It gets more complicated when another report says the bomb WAS armed. And since nobody has
ever conclusively located the bomb, it's still a matter of concern for some folks. The USAF took another crack at it in 2004, and still couldn't locate it, officially giving up once and for all.
Even if it was combat ready, it's unlikely that anyone or anything could get it to go high yield at this point; 68 years downrange - at best it's under several feet of silt and salt water - there wouldn't be a functioning electrical (or for that matter, mechanical) switch or system inside it, and even if you could get the conventional explosive to go, all it's going to do is scatter nuclear material, not give you a yield.
Mike
Yabut it’s always fun to toss the “live nuke” out there.
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2026 5:39 pm
by Craiglxviii
Look, all this talk of accidentally nuking one’s ow country (or that of an ally) is all very well and good when nothing goes off…
We accidentally nuked a golf course one day. Accidental release of a Red Beard (always unstable at the best of times) caused it to fizzle upon impact, estimated 20-30t TNT equivalent.
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2026 11:38 pm
by Bernard Woolley
Craig, weirdly there’s nothing online that I can find about that incident.
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 12:26 am
by Nathan45
Im curious about that incident myself
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 12:45 am
by Rocket J Squrriel
kdahm wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:29 pm
Well, one valid target out of five isn't too bad for random chance.....
New Jersey?
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 1:32 am
by kdahm
Rocket J Squrriel wrote: ↑Fri Jan 30, 2026 12:45 am
kdahm wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:29 pm
Well, one valid target out of five isn't too bad for random chance.....
New Jersey?
Yes.
Bernard Woolley wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 11:38 pm
Craig, weirdly there’s nothing online that I can find about that incident.
I can't find it either.
This site:
https://www.nuclearinfo.org/wp-content/ ... the-UK.pdf indicates 15 incidents involving the UK with nuclear weapons. Only July 17, 1956 is redacted, before Red Beard was first tested.
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2026 11:06 pm
by jemhouston
Nightwatch2 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:16 pm
Nathan45 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 4:11 pm
I thought we could use a little more lighthearted stuff on the board lately, this details a B-52s desperate attempt to return to Seymour Johnson (seriously) air base with a leaking fuel take and 2 mark 39 bombs yielding 3.8 megatons.
Also dropping nucs on Denmark sovereign soil allready has a precedent it appears.
(All due respect to the crew who didn't survive)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNIlXE6Jv ... hyohjO8%3D
As I recall, we’ve also nuked Spain, New Jersey and Arkansas.
Would anyone notice if it initiated over New Jersey?
Re: The US accidentally nuked itself....twice, also Greenland
Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2026 12:31 pm
by Craiglxviii
kdahm wrote: ↑Fri Jan 30, 2026 1:32 am
Rocket J Squrriel wrote: ↑Fri Jan 30, 2026 12:45 am
kdahm wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 5:29 pm
Well, one valid target out of five isn't too bad for random chance.....
New Jersey?
Yes.
Bernard Woolley wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 11:38 pm
Craig, weirdly there’s nothing online that I can find about that incident.
I can't find it either.
This site:
https://www.nuclearinfo.org/wp-content/ ... the-UK.pdf indicates 15 incidents involving the UK with nuclear weapons. Only July 17, 1956 is redacted, before Red Beard was first tested.
Most odd! This was a Stuart story iirc.