Lost Nuclear Bomb - Broken Arrow

In 1950 the United States Air Force lost their first nuclear bomb, this incident known as a broken arrow has become shrouded in mystery ever since it happened.

It seems that what ever happened to this first loss of a nuclear bomb caused the United States of America to classify information and never reveal the true outcome of this fateful incident. It is for this reason that today you will find out more about this incident and what may have truly occured when a 5 tonne nuclear bomb was lost.

The United States Air Force were wanting to conduct a simulation of a nuclear attack on San Francisco in California.

The idea behind the simulation was not to see what would happen to an American city if it were to be hit by a nuclear bomb but actually to practise nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union (now Russia).

Part of this practise was to find out whether the bombers being used (B36 - Peacemakers) were able to carry out nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union during the winter months where sub zero freezing weather is found. during weather of this temperature the B36 normally had issues with its engines so it was deemed a great test to carry out.

On 13th February 1950 a Convair B36 (B) Bomber bearing the serial number 44-92075 (known to most as B36 075) and with a crew of 16 on board took off from Eielson AFB in Alaksa.

The B36 Bomber was not simply carrying out the simulation without cargo on board, this plane was actually carrying a Mark IV nucelar bomb known as the Fat Man and is the advanced version of the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

The flight was to take B36 075 down the coast of Alaska and British Columbia before turning inland when it reach the mainland of the United States where it would fly to the Great Falls, carry on to comlpete its mission by flying over San Francisco before then flying on to Texas for landing and debrief.

Before the B36 took off it was already having difficulties with its engines because of temperatures of upto minus 40 degrees centigrade. After take off everything seemed okay for a short time until 7 hours into the flight when 3 of the planes engine started flaming and were shut down to stop the potential of a fire.

With only 3 engines the B36 did not have enough power, because of this the crew decided that the only option was to abandon the aircraft.

Before abandoning the craft the United States Air Force state that the crew detonated the nuclear weapon in mid air over the Pacific Ocean but with a dummy core as the Nuclear Weapon did not have a nuclear core because it was an exercise. The Captain then steered the plane over Princess Royal Island so the crew could bail out over land and not into the cold Pacific Ocean before then turning on the auto pilot.

For this whole time period the crew of B36 075 remained in radio contact with Strategic Air Command.

Although the United States Air Force documents say the nuclear weapon was detonated over the Pacific without a nuclear core so as not to cause a nuclear explosion and that the crew moved back over land for the crew to air drop to safety there are many that dont believe this to be true.

The first issue is that the US Air Force believed the plane landed in the sea after the crew disembarked yet the crash site of the B36 was found in an unpopulated area of British Columbia 4 years after the event.

The second issue is that the US Air Force sent people in a secret mission to the area when the crash site was found.

Thirdly and most interestingly is that one person from the aircraft was unaccounted for, the Captain. Of the other 16 people onboard we know that 12 survived, 4 died and 1 was unaccounted for, presumed dead (although the US Air Force line is that 12 survived and 5 died).

The theory is that the Captain stayed on board and never put the aircraft into autopilot after the crew diembarked, he then flew the plane to try and get it back to Alaska and unfortunately failed when it crash landed. Further theories say he never died and managed to disembark himself meaning that he was then given a secret identity and lived the rest of his life without anyone knowing who he really was.

If this is correct then the theory is that the nuclear weapon was never detonated and may still be lurking in the waters of the Pacific or on the mountains of British Columbia.

Further to this of the 5 people presumed dead all the four known dead have had streets named after them at an Air Force base yet no street has been named after the Captain.

Since this first broken arrow occured in 1950 the United States has had 60 nuclear weapons go missing and to give you an even more scary thought, not all of the 60 nuclear weapons have been found.

It is staggering to contemplate, 60 nuclear weapons going missing and the United States government has not even been able to reclaim them all as they couldnt find some of the 60 nuclear weapons.

Whos to say that someone may stumble across one of these nuclear bombs in time to come and use them for ill gotten gains.