At one time, the C-124 was the world’s largest military transport aircraft. Weighing in at 175,000lbs with a wingspan of 175-feet, four 3,500 horsepower Pratt & Whitney propeller engines drive the air frame along at a stately cruising speed of 246 mph. Manufacturer Douglas Aircraft called the aircraft “Globemaster”. Airmen called the plane “Old Shaky”.
The Air Force C-124 Globemaster transport left its base in Delaware on July 28, 1957, on a routine flight to Europe. On board were a crew of seven, three nuclear bombs, and one nuclear core. The flight would routinely have taken 10-12 hours. This trip was destined to be anything but routine.
Exactly what went wrong remains a mystery, due to the sensitive nature of the cargo. Two engines had to be shut down shortly into the mission, and the aircraft turned back. The nearest suitable airfield was the Naval Air Station in Atlantic City, but that was too far. Even at maximum RPMs, the best the remaining two engines could do was slow the massive aircraft’s descent into the sea.
An emergency landing on open ocean is not an option with such a large aircraft. It would have broken up on impact with the probable loss of all hands. Descending rapidly, the crew would have jettisoned everything they could lay hands on, to reduce weight. Non-essential equipment would have gone first, then excess fuel, but it wasn’t enough. With only 2,500ft and losing altitude, there was no choice left but to jettison those atomic bombs.
At 3,000 pounds apiece, two of the three bombs were enough to do the job, and the C-124 made it safely to Atlantic City. What became of those two atomic bombs remains a mystery. Most likely, they lie at the bottom of the ocean, 100 miles off the Jersey shore.
The United States Department of Defense has a term for accidents involving nuclear weapons, warheads or components, which do not involve the immediate risk of nuclear war. Such incidents are called “Broken Arrows”.
Broken Arrows include accidental or unexplained nuclear or non-nuclear detonation of an atomic weapon, the loss of such a weapon with or without its carrying vehicle, and the release of nuclear radiation resulting in public hazard, whether actual or potential.
The US Defense Department has reported 32 Broken Arrow incidents, since 1950. To date, six nuclear weapons remain lost, and never recovered.
If you’re interested, a handy “Short History of Nuclear Folly” may be found HERE, including details of each incident along with a handy map. It all makes for some mighty comforting bedtime reading.
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Reblogged this on Dave Loves History and commented:
OPREP Three: NUCFLASH!
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Dave, you were Mr. fire control man, if I’m not mistaken. This stuff must bring back some kinda memories😎
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I was also the Weapons Department Yeoman (hint: never let the Navy know you can type), so I spent hundreds if not thousands of hours typing up those reports (if any actually happened, I can neither confirm nor deny), lessons learned articles, and every time there was a change made to C8120 (the “Nuclear Weapons Manual) I ended up retyping the whole chapter involved. It’s embedded in my brain forever…
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I have always employed “the Columbus method“ Dave, when it comes to typing. Find it and land on it. I have always until this moment, viewed that as a shortcoming. Now I wonder.
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“The US Defense Department has reported 32 Broken Arrow incidents, since 1950. To date, six nuclear weapons remain lost, and never recovered.” Leave it to the US Defense Department to choose a completely innocuous term to describe utterly catastrophic events like this. Thank you for another hair raising military history post.
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Isn’t that the truth. I was quite fond of “nucflash“, as well. Kind of sounds like a candy bar… Or something. Shades of Slim Pickens, riding away from the Bombay door…
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Yet another astounding window into our human history/folly! I certainly never learned in American History class that two nuclear warheads likely lie somewhere off the coast of New Jersey…. These are the details of history that are often airbrushed away by the powers-that-be. Recently I have been reading a book about our immune. system and learned that thousands of children were infected — many of them paralyzed and a few killed — during early, unsuccessful polio vaccine attempts. It gave me new empathy for the folks who so far have chosen not to get vaccinated against COVID-19… because there IS a history of vaccines going awry. Thanks for another great blog post. P.S. I am reading your blog post on Cape Cod while visiting Yarmouth for a week.
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Welcome to our little corner of paradise. I’ll let you in on a little secret but don’t tell anybody I said this. September is every bit as great down here as the high summer months but all the tourists have gone home. You have cool dry nights and warm days, barefoot weather and all the rates are down. You can even take a left across traffic.😎 It’s our private summer down here. Best time of the year.
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