Event Marker Project Continues With Commemoration
of Another Peculiar Detonation
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Fran Grayson of the CLUI inspects the new monument soon
after installing it at the site where the 15 Megaton H-bomb
struck the ground.
CLUI photo
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Representatives from the CLUI
recently installed a monument at the site where a hydrogen bomb
accidentally fell out of an airplane and struck the ground,
partially exploding on impact. The monument, placed as close
to the exact point of impact as could be determined, includes
a text that describes the event.
The incident occurred in 1957
when a B-36 Bomber was ferrying the weapon from Biggs Air Force
Base, Texas, to Kirtland Air Force Base, at Albuquerque, New
Mexico, located a few miles north of the accident site.
As the aircraft approached
Kirtland, at an altitude of 1,700 feet, 1st Lt. Robert S. Karp
removed the release mechanism locking pin. It was standard procedure
to remove the pin prior to takeoff and landing to allow for
an emergency jettison of the weapon, if necessary. About 20
seconds after Karp pulled the pin, the unarmed Mk.17 suddenly
dropped through the closed bomb bay doors. The abrupt loss of
the bomb's weight caused the B-36 to jump up one thousand feet.
Although the weapon's parachute
deployed, it failed to fully retard the weapon's fall because
of the low altitude. The conventional HE components detonated
on impact, destroying the weapon, dispersing some nuclear material,
and creating a crater 12 feet deep and 25 feet across. A cow
grazing nearby was killed by the blast.
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Peter Merlin of the Aerospace Archeology Field Research
Team searches for fragments of the Mark 17 bomb. He found
several pieces, some of which were still radioactive.
CLUI photo
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Plutonium was dispersed by the conventional explosive
detonation of the device, and the area was contaminated by radiation.
The plutonium core had been removed from the bomb (as per normal
procedure) so the weapon could not have undergone a nuclear
detonation on impact. Though the site was mostly cleaned-up
by the military, some bomb fragments remain at the site and
are still slightly radioactive.
The event is characterized by the Department of
Defense as a "Broken Arrow", the term for the second
most severe accident involving a nuclear weapon (the most severe
category of accident is a "nucflash", a nuclear incident
that creates a risk of war). According to Peter Merlin, a military
weapons archeologist working with The Center on this project,
there have been hundreds of "Broken Arrow" level incidents
involving US weapons.
The installation is the third in the Peculiar Detonations Series
of the Center's Event Marker Project, a program to install monuments
at selected sites of unusual or otherwise significant land use
phenomena.
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The Mark 17 hydrogen
bomb: the largest bomb ever made by the United States.
Over 24 feet long, 42,000 pounds, and with an explosive
powerof 15-20 megatons (equivalent to over 1,000 Hiroshima
size bombs). This one is on display at the National Atomic
Museum.
CLUI photo
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