Narrow Escape: The Goldsboro Incident

In 1961, the United States almost nuked North Carolina by accident. Not in a drill.

Not in a test. Two live hydrogen bombs — real, armed, and falling out

of the sky. On January 24th, 1961, a B-52 bomber was flying over Goldsboro,

North Carolina, carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs — each one over 250 times more powerful

than Hiroshima. The plane broke apart mid-air after a fuel leak. The bombs dropped

— and they did exactly what they were designed to do. One bomb slammed into a field and

buried itself 20 feet underground. The other deployed its parachute, armed itself in

the air, and went through 5 of its 6 firing stages. It stopped at the