When B-36 Accidentally Dropped a 15-megaton Hydrogen Bomb near Albuquerque, NM

this is cowboy five seven over right you do not acknowledge brother transmission now six miles from touchdown may 22 1957 a b-36 bomber piloted by u.s air force captain richard meyer was on the final approach to kirtland air force base in new mexico the bomber was descending for a landing when all of a sudden at an altitude of 500 meters was only 7 kilometers left to the airfield and the plane abruptly jumped up 300 meters captain meyer was still trying to figure out what exactly had happened to the aircraft when he suddenly heard the voice in the intercom the dead silence hunted the aircraft for a moment on that day there was only one bomb on board the rp-36 but not just an ordinary one it was the mark 17 the largest hydrogen bomb to ever be put into service by the united states when talking about the so-called broken arrows the term that the military uses when referring to accidental events that involve nuclear weapons it's hard to imagine that such adjectives like funny or amusing could possibly be used to describe those events it's hard to find anything amusing about the nuclear bomb that is capable of total annihilation in a radius of several kilometers unless maybe it's a movie scene like the one from the 1964 film dr strangelove in which a bomber pilot releases a stock bomb by hand and rides it out of the plane to his death in a nuclear explosion and the funny thing is that george houston a former b-36 radio operator compared that exact same scene to the accident that happened to him and his crew members almost 65 years ago it's one of those things he said in his interview that is terrifying at the time but is funny afterward on august 27 1986 an article appeared in one of the american newspapers stating that according to declassified military documents on may 22nd 1957 a b-36 bomber from the 334th bomb squadron while flying from el paso texas to albuquerque new mexico accidentally dropped one of the most powerful hydrogen bombs that ever existed the bomb was being transported for routine maintenance and at the time there was only one aircraft in the world capable of that task convert b-36 one of the most famous and unique bombers in history of military aviation which also deserves at least a few words to be said about it was the beginning of 1941 when the us army air corps requested the development of the new super bomber at the time the united states were not even in the war at least not officially but the situation in europe was developing in such way that there was a serious threat that britain might fall making bombing heifers against germany impossible with the aircrafts of the time thus the us army air corps would need a bomber capable of reaching europe and then returning to bases in north america but it quickly became obvious that the requirements set for the new bomber were simply impossible to reach with the existing technologies so the project was temporarily put on hold it was resumed a bit later with the progress of the war the pacific and the need for a bomber that could reach the territory of japan from the bases in hawaii companies like boeing northrop and douglas took part in the competition and offered their designs but the winner was the bomber made by convert which received the designation b-36 and the u.s army air force immediately placed an order for 100 new bombers even though the task of reaching japan was quite successfully carried out later by the b-29 super fortress the order to build a hundred b surge sixes was not cancelled neither during nor after the war had ended the b-36 made its maiden flight on august 8 1946. the development of the aircraft appeared to be incredibly expensive more than 1 billion dollars by comparison the entire manhattan project cost the u.s budget 2 billion of course that number was still less than the one for b29 super fortress program but the production cost of each b36 was almost 6 times higher compared to b29 as a result the first attack that the b-36 had to withstand was not from the soviet mix but from the u.s navy which initiated congressional hearings accusing the b-36 procurement program of being corrupt and questioning the us air force strategic bombing doctrine in general the public conflict between the us president and the air force on one side and the u.s navy on the other went down in history as the revolt of the admirals of course navy admirals who referred to the b-36 as a billion dollar blunder were not primarily against the billion dollar spend but rather against spending it on the air force and not on the navy projects like for example on the so-called super carriers for which construction and funding were previously cancelled after the long and fierce public debates the us air force eventually prevailed and the convert b-36 became the primary weapon in america's arsenal the convert b-36 which unofficially received the name peacemaker for its time was without any exaggeration an exceptional piece of aircraft engineering one of the distinctive features of the bomber was the unusual placement of the engines the aircraft was equipped with six of the most powerful pratt and whitney engines which were mounted in a pusher configuration such a layout was chosen to reduce the drag which in turn would provide a positive effect on increasing the aircraft's flight range but the most significant feature was the gigantic size of the bomber even today the b-36 remains the largest mass-produced piston-powered aircraft in the history of aviation one of the best world war ii bombers the b-29 super fortress which had seemed like a giant before now seemed quite modest in comparison and could easily fit under the wing of the b-36 the peacemaker became the world's first true intercontinental bomber the aircraft's maximum flight range was an unbelievable 16 000 kilometers and its combat radius of six and a half thousand kilometers allowed the aircraft to reach the territory of the potential enemy while operating from airbases located in the united states the aircrew which usually consisted of 15 people were accommodated in two pressurized cabins at the front and the rear of the aircraft since the long flight range meant the crew members would be airborne for many hours for instance a normal training flight would last on average 40 hours the rear compartment featured the dining galley with a stove and a refrigerator as well as six bunks for the aircrew to rest between the two compartments the crew members move through the pressurized tunnel on a wheeled trolley in order to increase the speed and the maximum ceiling of the plane four additional jet engines were installed under the wings making the b-36 the only mass-produced aircraft in history which had 10 engines that in turn earned the plane the old famous nickname 6 turning for burning and all that for a single purpose only to deliver deadly cargo to the enemy territory the b-36 bump load for its time was simply staggering almost 40 tons even today in comparison with the payload of some existing bombers this number looks very decent in the list of believable in the list of believe it or not facts about the b-36 bomber released by convert in 1957 it was stated that among other things the volume of the b-36 bombays matched the capacity of approximately three railroad freight cars a characteristic that turned out to be critically important for the new role that the b-36 would have to carry on in the post-war world the b-36 became the first intercontinental carrier of nuclear weapons the first models of which were quite heavy and bulky like for example the first mass-produced thermonuclear bomb mark 17 which was seven and a half meters long one and a half meters in diameter and weighted 21 tons the bomb had a yield of 15 megatons which was more than 600 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on hiroshima in 1945. the mark 17 was the largest and heaviest bomb in the u.s nuclear arsenal and one of the most powerful bombs ever built it was exactly that type of the bomb that was on board captain richard myers b-36 on may 22nd 1957 it was 11 50 a.m when the b-36 piloted by captain richard meyer prepared to land at kirtland air force base located on the outskirts of albuquerque since it was a short flight from texas to new mexico the plane was relatively lightweight as the bomber's fuel tanks were only a third full when the plane was on the final approach first lieutenant bob carp began moving back towards the bombay the thing is that the bomb release mechanism on b-36 had a locking pin that had to be inserted in the mechanism at all times to prevent the accidental in-flight release of bombs however before the take-off and landing the standard operating procedure required the manual removal of the lock-in ping so that in the case of an emergency like an aircraft's engine failure pilots could release the bomb the b-36 began the descent and bob carp was already in the bombay ready to remove the lock and pin as one of the crew members later described bob corp and the bombay was hanging literally by his toes leaning with one hand on the bomb he stretched to reach the release mechanism with his other hand but imagine lieutenant carp's amusement when after pulling out the pin the huge thermonuclear bomb suddenly dropped from its sling broke the bombay doors with its weight and fell out of the aircraft the very next moment the plane that lost so much weight at once lurched upward about 300 meters as captain meyer later recalled simultaneously one of the crew members from the back of the plane called then someone yelled it might have been me he added in the interview in 1986. electronic officer major jack russon recalled that lieutenant carp came charging out of the bombay saying i didn't touch anything fortunately the plutonium capsule that was required to store the chain reaction in the bomb had not been inserted thus there was no danger of nuclear explosion however the fall caused the detonation of conventional explosives within the bomb raising a great cloud of dust in the sky after the explosion on the ground the bomb fell just about seven kilometers from kirtland air force base and luckily there were no people injured on the ground unfortunately casualties were not avoided completely the explosion killed the lonely grazing cow also there was minor radioactive contamination detected later in the explosion crater george houston db-36 radio operator immediately called the air base reporting that they had accidentally dropped a thermonuclear bomb so when they landed as he recalled they were met by quite a group of vips the aircraft and crew remained overnight at kirtland while investigators interrogated them extensively to find out what had happened the exact reason for the accidental bump release was not determined or at least has not been released officially according to the declassified incident report it is believed that the reason was the exposed cable near the release mechanism flexion of the fuselage during flight or lieutenant carps in inverted contact with the exposed cable could have resulted in the release of the bomb once the locking pin was removed what's important is that the investigation found that the first lieutenant carp had committed no procedural violations and the accident didn't have any negative consequences neither on his nor the rest of the crew members military careers the u.s air force paid compensation to the farmer for the loss of the cow as well as all the expenses related to the decontamination of the impact site which belonged to the university of new mexico the aircrew of the b-36 was asked to stay silent about what had happened and the accident remained classified until the mid-80s the broken arrow at new mexico became the last notable accident was the convert b-36 the giant bomber was designed and built according to the requirements of the world war ii and with the emergence of supersonic interceptors and first anti-aircraft missile systems did not fully correspond to more than reality in february 1959 less than two years after the accident the last b-36 was retired from the service and replaced by the new jet bomber boeing b-52 interestingly enough through its entire career the b-36s were never used as bombers against hostile forces though being capable of inflicting devastating nuclear strikes to the enemy territory b-36s never drop a single bomb in combat and always remained only the powerful nuclear deterrent against enemy aggression and in this way preventing the outbreak of a big war and even though the us air force has never adopted the name peacemaker proposed by convert one might say that the bomber fully justified its unofficial name the new mexico accident of 1957 remained classified for nearly 30 years which caused quite a disturbance in the media when the details of the accidents were made public in 1986 which is understandable while competing during the cold war for being the best political system in the world the us department of defense confirmed 32 accidents involving nuclear weapons meanwhile their soviet opponents provided their citizens with a state of divine serenity so they can peacefully work for the greatness of their homeland according to the official information from the minister of defense of the russian federation there has never been a single accident involving an aircraft carried nuclear weapons neither in the soviet union nor in modern russia let's hope that everything will remain this way in the future as well and that's the story if you like aviation and stories like this please subscribe and hit the like button to support new episodes on this channel a huge thank you for supporting papers guys on patreon if you also want to join you can check out the link in the description that's all for now thanks for watching and see you in the next video [Music] goodbye you

Channel: Paper Skies

Views: 355,090

Rating: 4.9144444 out of 5

Keywords: aviation, history, aviation history, paper skies, history of aviation, b-36, convair b-36 peacemaker, nuclear bomb, broken arrow, aviation documentary

Id: Dp1L1-2oPvQ

Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 23 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Papancasudani]

A plane carrying two 3-4 megaton bombs broke up over North Carolina in 1961. Three of the 4 arming mechanisms in one bomb activated, so we came awfully close to killing millions of people on the east coast of the US. A now-declassified report concluded that “one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash

[u/EndoShota]

“Whoops”

[u/unpaid_overtime]

That had to be a pucker factor so high you could hear the suction from ten feet away.

[u/vitfall]

I know it's referenced in the video, but that is a lot of information about the plane that I'm not sure was necessary. Especially for the sub-3 minute wrap up about the actual incident.

[u/Sm4sh3r88]

"Accidentally dropped..." That seems several magnitudes beyond "oops! My bad.*

[u/ErikTheAngry]

The what-ifs that stem from 'if it did explode' are insane.

What if the Americans thought that it was a Russian first-strike. Granted they knew the bomber was having problems, but would that information reach their president before the news that a fusion bomb had just detonated on american soil?

What if it had gone off and, witnessing first hand the destruction of a fusion bomb, it not only ended the arms race but lead to a new era of comradery between the nations of the world (USSR offering aid to the US, the US accepting and realizing that hey these guys aren't so bad for example).

What if the Americans knew they accidentally nuked themselves, reduced their nuclear posture, and got attacked by the USSR who sensed an opportunity?

What if the USSR saw the explosion, and assumed it was a failed first-strike? Obviously bomb tests happened, but not in highly populated areas. Silos were hidden in all sorts of places during the cold war.

[u/Jorgwalther]

Someone set us up the bomb.

[u/who-ee-ta]

We accidentally.Over.

[u/Malvania]

I don't know what's scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it.