crossroadclarence

Anybody know this story?:



On Feb. 5, 1958, during a simulated combat mission near Savannah, Ga., a B-47 bomber collided with an F-86 fighter. The fighter crashed; the bomber, barely airworthy, needed to reduce weight to avoid an emergency landing.


So it dropped a 7,600-pound nuclear bomb.
The bomb contained 400 pounds of conventional explosives and highly enriched uranium. There’s some disagreement as to whether it included the plutonium capsule needed to start a nuclear reaction.
That’s rather important, because in 50 years of searching the Air Force still hasn’t found the bomb.



It hit the water near Tybee Island off the Georgia coast and is presumably buried in 10 feet of silt somewhere in Wassaw Sound. But exactly where it is, and how dangerous it is, remain unknown.

diddyriddick

It seems that I remember reading that this event was the inspiration for the Tom Clancy book The Sum of All Fears.

Hickdive

There's a TV program on it;

MarkA

I also think the USAF lost 3 in spain (or near)

Eventually they found them, but the Spanish govement were not to happy to be on the flight path.

Also the USA gave Germany about 20, B61 Fusion bombs, they still have them, err i hope.....

Mark

Mel

Its fascinating that we have all of this technology but still can't find it.

crossroadclarence

Seems like a lot of sloppy handling of dangerous stuff to me. Wonder why they are so blasé ?