USA loses an atomic bomb and can't find it

[imported_Imp]

Meh. I'm not really worried if it goes off somehow or just becomes a dirty bomb. If it happens, then it happens. Ya, this is a bad attitude, but if you have to worry about the bomb under the sea, then there's a lot of other things to be paranoid over first. Reminds me of someone I know who's a pussy (sorry, there's just no other word) and is worrying about a couple people flying United Airlines.

 

[Oceandevi]

I have the bomb. Give me all your pudding or I blow up the base.

 

[WingZero94]

September 20, 1980
A technician dropping a wrench and breaking a fuel tank causes an explosion in the silo of a Titan II Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile. The explosion blows off the 740-ton door and sends the re-entry vehicle with its 9-megaton warhead 600 feet into the air, killing one man and injuring 21 others.

That would have been cool to see ..... (from a distance)

 

[everman]

Pretty cool how safe the bombs are though, considering one hasn't accidentally exploded yet, that I know of...

I seem to recall that they weren't sure if the bomb dropped on Hiroshima might explode the instant the technician fully assembled it in the plane just before dropping it. :Q I don't think it really had any significant safety mechanism other than transporting it with an essential component missing.

 

[FoBoT]

as long as they said "ooops", i am not worried

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: everman
Pretty cool how safe the bombs are though, considering one hasn't accidentally exploded yet, that I know of...

I seem to recall that they weren't sure if the bomb dropped on Hiroshima might explode the instant the technician fully assembled it in the plane just before dropping it. :Q I don't think it really had any significant safety mechanism other than transporting it with an essential component missing.

There was significant concern about the risks of taking of from the airfield on Tinian. Several B29s had crashed and burned at the end of the runway due equipment problems and the geography of the island.

Theoretically if either the of the weapons (when fully assembled) had suffered this fate they could have gone off destroying the installation/weapon. To prevent this the explosives required to trigger Little Boy were not installed until airborne and the same with the plutonium core of Fat Man.

 

[dennilfloss]

That bomb weighs three and a half tonnes and was dropped from an altitude of 7200 feet. My guess is it buried itself deep in the sediment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...mb#Dropped_and_Lost.21