Our Scarlett was almost nuked... It's true
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 7:06 pm
Who's minding the nukes?
A few days after John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, an Air Force B-52 had mechanical problems and accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb over Goldsboro,N.C.
When it hit the ground, the firing signal was sent. But one safety switch prevented a full-scale detonation of a powerful hydrogen bomb in North Carolina.
Why wasn't the accident made public? There was a real effort throughout the Cold War to deny that there was any possibility that a nuclear weapon could detonate by accident.
60 MINUTES
A few days after John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, an Air Force B-52 had mechanical problems and accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb over Goldsboro,N.C.
When it hit the ground, the firing signal was sent. But one safety switch prevented a full-scale detonation of a powerful hydrogen bomb in North Carolina.
Why wasn't the accident made public? There was a real effort throughout the Cold War to deny that there was any possibility that a nuclear weapon could detonate by accident.
60 MINUTES
