The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash was an accident that occurred in Goldsboro , North
Carolina
Around midnight on January 23-24, 1961, the bomber rendezvoused with a tanker for mid-air refueling. During the hook-up, the tanker crew advised the B-52 aircraft commander, Major Walter Scott Tulloch that his aircraft had a leak in the right wing. The refueling was aborted, and ground control was notified of the problem. The aircraft was directed to assume a holding pattern off the coast until the majority of fuel was consumed. However, when the B-52 reached its assigned position, the pilot reported that the leak had worsened and that 37,000 pounds (17,000 kg) of fuel had been lost in three minutes. The aircraft was immediately directed to return and land at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
As it descended through 10,000 feet (3,000 m) on its approach to the airfield, the pilots were no longer able to keep the aircraft in trim and lost control of it. The pilot in command ordered the crew to eject, which they did at 9,000 feet (2,700 m). Five men ejected and landed safely. Another ejected but did not survive the landing, and two died in the crash. The third pilot of the bomber, Lt. Adam Mattocks, is the only man known to have successfully bailed out of the top hatch of a B-52 without an ejection seat. The crew last saw the aircraft intact with its payload of two Mark 39 nuclear bombs on board. The wreckage of the aircraft covered a 2-square-mile (5.2 km2) area of tobacco and cotton farmland at Faro, about 12 miles (19 km) north ofGoldsboro
The two 2-2.5 megaton MK. 39 nuclear bombs separated from the gyrating aircraft as it broke up between 10,000 and 2,000 feet (3,050 and 610 m). Three of the four arming mechanisms on one of the bombs activated, causing it to execute many of the steps needed to arm itself, such as charging the firing capacitors and, critically, deployment of a 100-foot-diameter (30 m) retard parachute. The parachute allowed that bomb to hit the ground with little damage.
The second bomb plunged into a muddy field at around 700 miles per hour (310 m/s) and disintegrated without detonation of its conventional explosives. The tail was discovered about 20 feet (6.1 m) below ground. Parts of the bomb were recovered, including its tritium bottle and the plutonium. According to nuclear weapons historian Chuck Hansen, the bomb was partially armed when it left the aircraft though an unclosed high-voltage switch had prevented it from fully arming. 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.'”
Excavation of the second bomb was abandoned as a result of uncontrollable ground-water flooding. Most of the thermonuclear stage, containing uranium, was left in situ. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers purchased a 400 feet (120 m) circular easement over the buried component. TheUniversity
of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill determined the buried depth of the secondary component to be
180 feet (55 m), plus or minus 10 feet (3.0 m).
Accident
The aircraft, a B-52G
based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro ,
was on a 24-hour Operation Coverall airborne alert mission on the Atlantic
seaboard of the United
States China
Around midnight on January 23-24, 1961, the bomber rendezvoused with a tanker for mid-air refueling. During the hook-up, the tanker crew advised the B-52 aircraft commander, Major Walter Scott Tulloch that his aircraft had a leak in the right wing. The refueling was aborted, and ground control was notified of the problem. The aircraft was directed to assume a holding pattern off the coast until the majority of fuel was consumed. However, when the B-52 reached its assigned position, the pilot reported that the leak had worsened and that 37,000 pounds (17,000 kg) of fuel had been lost in three minutes. The aircraft was immediately directed to return and land at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
As it descended through 10,000 feet (3,000 m) on its approach to the airfield, the pilots were no longer able to keep the aircraft in trim and lost control of it. The pilot in command ordered the crew to eject, which they did at 9,000 feet (2,700 m). Five men ejected and landed safely. Another ejected but did not survive the landing, and two died in the crash. The third pilot of the bomber, Lt. Adam Mattocks, is the only man known to have successfully bailed out of the top hatch of a B-52 without an ejection seat. The crew last saw the aircraft intact with its payload of two Mark 39 nuclear bombs on board. The wreckage of the aircraft covered a 2-square-mile (5.2 km2) area of tobacco and cotton farmland at Faro, about 12 miles (19 km) north of
The two 2-2.5 megaton MK. 39 nuclear bombs separated from the gyrating aircraft as it broke up between 10,000 and 2,000 feet (3,050 and 610 m). Three of the four arming mechanisms on one of the bombs activated, causing it to execute many of the steps needed to arm itself, such as charging the firing capacitors and, critically, deployment of a 100-foot-diameter (30 m) retard parachute. The parachute allowed that bomb to hit the ground with little damage.
The bomb that
descended by parachute was found intact, and standing upright as a result of
its parachute being caught in a tree. According to Lt. Jack Revelle, the bomb
disposal expert responsible for disarming the device, the arm/safe switch was
still in the safe position, though it had completed the rest of the arming
sequence. The Pentagon claimed at the time that there was no chance of an explosion
and that two arming mechanisms had not activated. A United States Department of
Defense spokesperson told United Press International reporter Donald May that
the bomb was unarmed and could not explode.
Former military analyst Daniel
Ellsberg has claimed to have seen highly classified documents indicating that
its safe/arm switch was the only one of the six arming devices on the bomb that
prevented detonation. In 2013, information released as a result of a Freedom of
Information Act request confirmed a single switch prevented detonation.
The second bomb plunged into a muddy field at around 700 miles per hour (310 m/s) and disintegrated without detonation of its conventional explosives. The tail was discovered about 20 feet (6.1 m) below ground. Parts of the bomb were recovered, including its tritium bottle and the plutonium. According to nuclear weapons historian Chuck Hansen, the bomb was partially armed when it left the aircraft though an unclosed high-voltage switch had prevented it from fully arming. 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.'”
Excavation of the second bomb was abandoned as a result of uncontrollable ground-water flooding. Most of the thermonuclear stage, containing uranium, was left in situ. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers purchased a 400 feet (120 m) circular easement over the buried component. The
Later Analysis of Weapons Recovery
In 2013,
investigative journalist Eric Schlosser published a book, Command and
Control, in which he presented a declassified 1969 document obtained under
the Freedom of Information Act. In the report, entitled "Goldsboro
Revisited," written by Parker F. Jones, a supervisor of nuclear safety at Sandia
National Laboratories, Jones says that "one simple, dynamo-technology, low
voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe,"
and concludes that "The MK 39 Mod 2 bomb did not possess adequate safety
for the airborne alert role in the B-52."
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