Dear Member,
Following is a message I got from a retired B-52 pilot about the H-bomb dropped in NM. As to the nuclear weapon being dropped Mississippi, it was not Mississippi River but off of the Georgia cost near Savanah. Divers have hunted and hunted for that H-bomb but have never found it. They believe has sunk over time hundreds of feet in the marsh mud. It was lost when a B-47 hit another aircraft when coming in for a landing.
Jack E. Hammond
Quote:
As is quite often the case in such letters while the basic facts are there many of the details aren't quite right. The racks were unlocked for take off and landing in order that that huge weight could be jettisoned in an emergency. The navigator sent into the bomb bay to unlock the rack did so but had also inadvertantly applied pressure to a short unguarded section of the manual jettison cable prior to unlocking the rack. When the rack was unlocked the weapon was released. A single point detonation of the HE initiator ensued upon contact, scattering nuclear material around beside making a crater. The nuclear "pit" was with the bomb but the MK 17 was an early weapon with automatic IFI (in flight insertion" meaning that unless armed there could be no nuclear detonation. As for the incident not being knownuntil the 1980s, the massive clean up on land owned by the University hardly went unnoticed!
Regards,
Wayne
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