LONDON
(AFP) - The US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating a huge
atomic bomb over North Carolina in 1961, according to a newly
declassified document published by Britain's Guardian newspaper on
Saturday.Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over the city of
Goldsboro, North…
AFP
Atom bomb nearly detonated over North Carolina in 1961
.
View gallery
Picture taken in 1971, showing a
nuclear explosion in Mururoa atoll. The US Air Force came dramatically
close to detonating a huge atomic bomb over North Carolina in 1961,
according to a newly declassified document published by Britain's
Guardian newspaper on Saturday. (AFP Photo/)
13 hours ago
LONDON (AFP) - The US Air Force came dramatically close to
detonating a huge atomic bomb over North Carolina in 1961, according to a
newly declassified document published by Britain's Guardian newspaper
on Saturday.Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over the city
of Goldsboro, North Carolina on January 23, 1961 when the B-52 plane
carrying them broke up in mid-air, according to the file.One of the
bombs began to detonate -- a single switch was all that stopped it from
doing so. The three other safety mechanisms designed to prevent an
unintended detonation failed.The US government has acknowledged the
accident before, but the 1969 document is the first confirmation of how
close the United States came to nuclear catastrophe on that day."It
would have been bad news in spades," wrote its author, US government
scientist Parker F. Jones.The bomb was 260 times more powerful than the
one that devastated Hiroshima in 1945, according to the Guardian.The
accident happened at the height of the Cold War between the United
States and the Soviet Union.The declassified report was obtained by US
investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under freedom of information
legislation."The US government has consistently tried to withhold
information from the American people in order to prevent questions being
asked about our nuclear weapons policy," said Schlosser."We were told
there was no possibility of these weapons accidentally detonating, yet
here's one that very nearly did."Jones jokingly titled the report
"Goldsboro Revisited, or: How I Learned To Mistrust the H-Bomb", a
reference to Stanley Kubrick's classic 1964 film about nuclear
Armageddon, "Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love
the Bomb".
No comments:
Post a Comment