In a world where losing everyday items is commonplace, the United States faces a far more serious issue: lost nuclear bombs.
While most of us might misplace a pen or forget our keys, the U.S. government struggles with the significant challenge of having up to 11 atomic bombs missing.
These weapons, some of which are believed to be located but remain unrecovered, present a daunting risk.
Authorities have opted not to retrieve them due to potential dangers of radioactive leaks or accidents during recovery efforts.
Nuclear security expert Stephen Schwartz emphasizes that the government has never fully disclosed information about its lost nuclear arsenal.
“There’s still a lot we don’t know about the nuclear weapons program—and probably never will,” Schwartz stated.
Perhaps the most notorious incident involving lost nuclear weapons occurred near Tybee Island, Georgia.
On February 5, 1958, a B-47 bomber collided mid-air with an F-86 fighter jet during a training exercise.
At the time, the B-47 bomber was carrying a 7,500-pound Mark 15 thermonuclear bomb.
After the collision, the commander of the B-47 attempted an emergency landing, for which he was authorized to jettison the bomb from 7,200 feet over Wassaw Sound, a small, shallow bay where retrieval appeared possible.
Despite extensive searches conducted by the Navy and Air Force covering a 15-square-mile area for two months, the bomb remained elusive.
In April of that year, the government abandoned the search, declaring the bomb irretrievable.
Years later, in 2004, Derek Duke, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, led a private search for the bomb.
Though they did not recover the weapon, they reported detecting elevated radiation levels, indicating that the bomb might still be located beneath layers of sediment.
However, the U.S. Department of Energy refuted these findings, stating that the elevated radiation was naturally occurring and unrelated to the missing bomb.
To this day, the bomb from Tybee Island remains unaccounted for.
An even more alarming situation unfolded on January 24, 1961, over Goldsboro, North Carolina, when a B-52G bomber broke apart mid-flight while carrying two 3.8-megaton Mark 39 thermonuclear bombs.
While five of the eight crew members survived the crash, the bombs fell to the ground.
One bomb sank into a muddy swamp, while the other deployed its parachute and became ensnared in a tree.
What could have led to disaster was narrowly avoided when three of the bomb’s four safety mechanisms failed, and the device did not detonate only because two wires in a low-voltage switch failed to connect.
Had this bomb detonated, the explosion could have been 260 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, occurring in a densely populated area.
While some components of the bomb that fell into the swamp were successfully recovered, most of it remains buried under the ground.
In response to this incident, the government purchased the land, established a perimeter, and opted against further excavation due to the risks of exposing radioactive materials.
As a result, the remaining parts of the bomb still lie several feet underground, untouched and untouched.
Between 1960 and 1968, the U.S. conducted a series of operations known as Operation Chrome Dome that involved continuous flights of B-52 bombers armed with nuclear bombs to patrol near Soviet airspace.
This operation ensured an immediate response capability in the event of a nuclear attack but was ultimately suspended following a series of accidents.
The first Chrome Dome incident occurred on January 17, 1966, when a B-52 collided with a refueling aircraft, resulting in the drop of four B28 nuclear bombs over Palomares, Spain.
Two of the bombs struck the ground and detonated conventionally, dispersing radioactive material across the area.
Another bomb landed without detonation and was recovered without damage, while the last bomb fell into the sea.
This bomb was initially located from a depth of 1,000 feet, but during recovery, it slipped the cable and sank to a depth of 2,850 feet.
After an operation reminiscent of a scientific fiction narrative, the recovery team finally retrieved the submerged bomb on April 7.
The second significant Chrome Dome accident unfolded on January 21, 1968, when a B-52G crashed onto the ice of North Star Bay in Thule, Greenland, carrying four bombs.
While three of the bombs experiences conventional explosions that destroyed their nuclear components and spread radioactive material, the fourth bomb was never found.
It remains a mystery whether that bomb sank to the bottom of the bay or became encased in ice, potentially surfacing in an iceberg at some point.
A number of nuclear accidents have occurred under classified circumstances, with some accidents occurring in international waters or remote locations where bombs could not be reclaimed.
One particularly murky case allegedly happened within the U.S. during the 1960s, where a bomb fell but could not be retrieved due to risks associated with recovery efforts.
The details of this incident remain undisclosed and largely classified.
On a more unusual note, on December 5, 1965, a Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, which was laden with a 1-megaton B43 thermonuclear bomb, accidentally rolled off the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga during a routine move.
Due to miscommunication with the pilot, the aircraft, along with the bomb, sank to the bottom of the Philippine Sea at a depth of 16,000 feet and has never been recovered.
This incident took place approximately 60 miles off Japan’s coast, prompting the Japanese government to issue a diplomatic protest against the presence of nuclear weapons in their territorial waters.
As noted by researcher Jaya Tiwari from the Center for Defense Information, “Some of these accidents were more dangerous than one might suspect.”
Currently, there exist 12,241 documented nuclear warheads in the world.
The hope is that such losses will never occur again—after all, losing one’s keys is already a hassle, while the loss of a nuclear bomb should indeed be regarded as beyond unacceptable.
image source from：en
