When the US Narrowly Avoided a NUCLEAR ☢️ Catastrophe

In 1961, During the Cold War, a B-52 Stratofortress military aircraft carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs, each one 250 times more powerful than the bomb in Hiroshima. The craft had severe technical difficulties and broke apart mid-air. Captain Major Tulloch ordered everyone on board to bail, leaving the disintegrating aircraft unmanned.

1 bomb unintentionally ejected, descending via parachute, eventually getting caught in a tree near Goldsboro. Bomb 2 was partially armed and remained in the craft until the point of impact when it was smashed deep into the ground along with other wreckage. A simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch is all that stood between a major catastrophe.

The incident was kept secret at the time, but became public knowledge in 2013 after a Freedom of Information Act request by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, illustrating how perilously close the United States came to being devastated by a nuclear explosion.