One Cheap Switch Saved The Day

[DrFilth]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961

[DrFilth]

> the US government has repeatedly publicly denied that its nuclear arsenal has ever put Americans' lives in jeopardy through safety flaws

[EDDIE51]

Scary!

[sigma]

I thought it was a flaw that prevented detonation.

Had it detonated it would have taken American "friendly fire" to a whole new level.

Look at it another way,had it failed to detonate when dropped on an enemy target it would have bought into question the effectiveness of America's nuclear arsenal.

[DrFilth]

was listening to the news early this morning they said the only thing that stopped it was a simple cheap switch which i presume a person in the aircraft would have flicked before they dropped the thing on the enemy

[Zacs-Master]

Using freedom of information, he discovered that at least 700 "significant" accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968 alone.

Very scary.

[DrFilth]

from the comments below the article

> Has Pilkington fled for Hong Kong now after these revelations? <


> Actually, going shopping for furs in Moscow ahead of the winter

[Gromit]

Rather frightening. Sent a link to that yesterday to my sister who has lived in North Carolina.

Wasn't there supposed to have been an incident near Norfolk shortly after WWII involving an American plane crashing?

[Gromit]

// the only thing that stopped it was a simple cheap switch which i presume a person in the aircraft would have flicked before they dropped the thing on the enemy //

Did you not read your own link?

// When the bomb hit the ground, a firing signal was sent to the nuclear core of the device, and it was only that final, highly vulnerable switch that averted calamity. //

It was an automated switch that failed, not a manual one. The fail safes designed to avert detonation in the event of a crash did not work and the bomb hit the ground but failed to detonate.

[DrFilth]

Gromit i read it early this morning which you would class as the middle of the night -)

[Gromit]

Channel four:
// an American B47 bomber crashed in Norfolk in 1957. No one was ever told that the fire caused by the crash came within minutes of setting off two nuclear bombs and devastating East Anglia. //

[jno]

devastating East Anglia

On the whole, I'd have thought NYC and DC had done more to deserve it than mild-mannered East Angular.

[Gromit]

// Gromit i read it early this morning which you would class as the middle of the night -) //

I posted at 2.51am this morning (middle of the night). Hence I'm a bit grumpy this morning :-)

[Peter Pedant]

O Boll+cks

This is a typical English story "we might have been gassed by poisonous germs when such and such happened (in this case a plane fell out of the sky),
.... but we didnt/werent."

One fell out of an aircragt and dropped on Spain 1968 if you recollect

[Peter Pedant]

devastating East Anglia

but how would we tell ?
PP

[jno]

the locals would say "We're devastated".

[Gromit]

// * A USAF B-47 crashed into a storage igloo spreading burning fuel over three Mark 6 nuclear bomb. The Mark 6 nuclear bomb was an American nuclear bomb based on the earlier Mark 4 nuclear bomb and its predecessor, the Mark 3 Fat Man nuclear bomb design.The Mark 6 was produced from 1951-1955 and saw service until 1962...
Royal Air Force Station Lakenheath, commonly abbreviated to RAF Lakenheath, is a Royal Air Force military airbase near Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. Although an RAF station, it hosts United States Air Force units and personnel...

.A bomb disposal expert stated it was a miracle exposed detonators on one bomb did not fire, which presumably would have released nuclear material into the environment. //

[DrFilth]

i was getting up then as i had only taken one moggy and no painkillers -)

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=16aae6e&amp;s=5#.Uj1mcn-30xV

[Gromit]

Jeez DrFilth!!!

I do now remember you had been ill and stop posting for a little while. Hope you are OK and don't rattle too much :-)

[DrFilth]

gromit they are my night ones i have another lot for during the day -)

[DrFilth]

and i am
.
.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_jhyQfIxO0