On the night of February 13, 1950, a Convair B-36B “Peacemaker” carrying a nuclear payload was returning from a practice bombing run when poor weather caused three of its six engines to fail. Unable to continue, the crew jettisoned its Mark 4 “Fat Man” nuclear bomb into the Pacific Ocean before bailing out. The B-36 continued, unmanned, until it crashed into Mount Kaloget, British Columbia. The Air Force insists that the bomb’s detonation core had been replaced with a dummy practice core before being dropped; however, this cannot be confirmed, as the weapon has never been recovered.
It’s unsettling to think that a potentially armed nuclear weapon has been sitting unattended somewhere off the coast of Canada for the last 73 years. Even more unsettling is that at least five other “Broken Arrow” events resulted in “lost” nuclear weapons—and those are just the ones the U.S. government admits to.
The next such incident occurred on March 10, 1956, when a Boeing B-47 Stratojet took off from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, en route to Ben Guerir Air Base in Morocco. After completing its first midair refueling, the Stratojet lost contact with the tanker crew shortly before its second refueling. The aircraft’s last known location was about 90 miles southwest of Oran, but no trace of the Stratojet was ever found. Although there was no risk of a nuclear detonation, the B-47 was carrying two nuclear cores that could be highly problematic in the wrong hands.
Two years later, another B-47—this time on a practice bombing run—was involved in a midair collision with an F-86 near Savannah, Georgia. After three failed landing attempts, the crew was authorized to jettison its nuclear bomb to avoid a possible detonation during a crash landing. The bomb was dropped into Wassa Sound off Tybee Beach, and it was never recovered. After releasing the bomb, the B-47 landed safely at Hunter Air Force Base. Again, the Air Force reported that the bomb did not contain its nuclear capsule, but a conventional explosion remained a possibility.
Then there was the time the Air Force nearly erased North Carolina from the map. On January 24, 1961, a fuel leak caused a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress to break apart over Goldsboro, North Carolina. Five of the eight crew members parachuted to safety, but the aircraft’s two four-megaton Mark-39 nuclear bombs fell to the earth. One bomb was found hanging in a tree, its parachute deployed; the other impacted a field at approximately 700 miles per hour and was obliterated, burying itself about 180 feet into the ground. The intact bomb was recovered, along with the nuclear core of the other. A declassified 2013 report revealed that both bombs had triggered three out of four of their arming devices.
On December 5, 1965, the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga was participating in a training exercise in Japanese waters, about 70 miles from Kikai Island. While transporting an AE-4 Skyhawk from the flight elevator to the deck, the aircraft somehow fell overboard. The pilot and at least one B43 nuclear weapon were lost at a depth of approximately 16,000 feet and never recovered. Details of the event remain unclear, and it wasn’t until 1989 that the U.S. government confirmed that an atomic bomb had been lost in Japanese waters.
The final unrecovered nuclear weapons belong to the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion, which mysteriously went missing in May of 1968. The wreck of the Scorpion was eventually located, though tragically, the vessel sank with the loss of all 99 crew members. The Scorpion’s two nuclear warheads and nuclear reactor remain at the bottom of the North Atlantic at a depth of approximately 9,800 feet.
The optimist in me might point out that it’s been over fifty years since a nuclear weapon has been lost. However, the realist in me knows better. It’s much more likely that these kinds of “whoopsies” are aggressively covered up and classified nowadays. As for the known bombs that have been lost in the world, it’s incredibly unlikely—if not impossible—for any of them to detonate. At least, that’s what we are told. I suppose it’s better to believe that if you want to sleep at night.
Before you get too comfortable, keep in mind that the United States is not the only nuclear power. Rumors suggest that upwards of 100 “suitcase” nuclear bombs remain unaccounted for after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In fact, it is unclear whether the entirety of their conventional nuclear arsenal has been accounted for, though it is widely believed that vast quantities of nuclear material went missing. Then, of course, there is the possibility of their own version of Broken Arrows.
Jason Roberts is a Seattle-based author noted for his acclaimed western horror series The Dead Wind Trilogy as well as other works of cosmic horror infused with historical fiction. His web-based series, Dark Distractions examines paranormal mysteries, unexplained phenomena, and all things strange.
