On a cold night in January 1961, the United States came terrifyingly close to detonating a hydrogen bomb on its own soil. A B-52 Stratofortress bomber, carrying a payload more than 250 times as powerful as the weapon dropped on Hiroshima, suffered a catastrophic structural failure over Goldsboro, North Carolina.
As the aircraft disintegrated in the sky, it released two Mark 39 nuclear bombs, sending them plummeting toward the farmland below. One of the weapons went through its full arming sequence, leaving only a single, simple safety switch between the sleeping residents of North Carolina and a nuclear disaster.
A Routine Flight Turns Deadly
The mission began as part of Operation Chrome Dome, a Cold War program designed to keep nuclear-armed bombers in the air 24 hours a day to deter Soviet aggression. The B-52G, call sign Keep 19, took off from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base with a crew of eight.
Hours into the flight, the pilot noticed a fuel leak in the right wing. The situation deteriorated rapidly as the leak worsened, causing the wing to lose structural integrity. As the crew attempted to return to base, the right wing sheared off completely at 8,000 feet. The fuselage spun uncontrollably, breaking apart under the immense g-forces. Five crew members managed to eject and land safely, but three men died in the crash.
Two Bombs, Two Paths
As the bomber broke up, the two nuclear weapons on board separated from the wreckage. The first bomb behaved exactly as if the crew had dropped it for a combat mission. Its parachute deployed, stabilizing its descent, and it landed upright in a muddy field, its nose buried just slightly in the earth. The second bomb fell in a freefall without a parachute, plunging into a swampy area at approximately 700 miles per hour. It disintegrated upon impact, burying itself deep into the waterlogged ground.
One Switch Away from Catastrophe
When explosive ordnance disposal teams reached the first bomb, they discovered a chilling reality. The weapon had completed nearly every step required for detonation. The arming wires had pulled out, the pulse generator had activated, and the parachute had deployed.
Of the four safety mechanisms designed to prevent accidental explosion, three had failed. Only a single low-voltage safe/arm switch remained in the “safe” position, preventing the firing signal from reaching the nuclear core. Had a short circuit occurred during the impact, a 3.8-megaton explosion would have obliterated the region.
The Buried Secret
The recovery of the second bomb proved impossible. The high-speed impact drove the weapon deep into the soft, muck-filled ground. Crews excavated to a depth of 50 feet but could not retrieve the secondary stage of the thermonuclear device, which contained uranium and plutonium.
The Air Force eventually abandoned the dig due to uncontrollable flooding. To this day, the thermonuclear core remains buried beneath the North Carolina soil. The military purchased the land to prevent anyone from digging there, maintaining a permanent easement over the site where a nuclear weapon still rests.
In 1961, the US almost nuked North Carolina.
A B-52 bomber broke apart mid-air, dropping two hydrogen bombs.
One weapon went through every arming step but one.
A single switch stood between the East Coast and a blast 250 times bigger than Hiroshima…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/g7gmQVJSmN
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) December 12, 2025