A harrowing mishap and the loss of a nuke
On February 13 th, 1950, a lone B- 36 removed from snowy Eielson AFB in Alaska. The airplane carried a staff of sixteen plus one onlooker, along with a solitary Mark 4 atomic bomb. The plane had a mission that would take it on a lengthy and circuitous course across the Pacific Northwest. It would twist down over Seattle prior to diving over Oregon and Northern The Golden State. After that, it would reach an altitude of 40, 000 feet or even more to simulate a high elevation bombing run against San Francisco. After imitating the strike, the only bomber would certainly after that go back to base in Texas.
The training exercise was purchased due to the anxieties that a cloud of Soviet bombing planes could show up at any moment, equipped with nukes and ready to target significant American and European cities. Defenders in cities like San Francisco needed to be trained on just how to respond to such a strike, and American bombing plane teams needed to learn exactly how to conduct them themselves in the event that they located themselves overhead over Moscow.
The nuke loaded aboard the B- 36 was not armed with a plutonium core. Those precious cores were still in the sole ownership of the Atomic Energy Payment. Still, even without the plutonium trigger, the Mark 4 a-bomb still …