In military terminology, “Broken Arrow” is an accident involving a nuclear bomb that does not result in detonation. From 1950-1980, there were 21 declassified incidents where nuclear bombs were lost, accidentally dropped, ejected from a plane for safety reasons, or on planes that crashed. Probably the most serious of those incidents occurred on Jan. 24, 1961 in North Carolina. It is known as the Goldsboro B-52 Crash. In the midst of the Cold War, B-52 bombers were continually in flight in case of a nuclear war. One of those Stratofortresses developed a fuel leak that resulted in it being ordered to return to base. Unfortunately, the plane became unstable and began to fall apart. The crew was ordered to eject. One pilot, Adam Mattocks, was able to get out through a hatch (the only person in history to survive a B-52 crash without ejecting). Three crew members died. The two nuclear bombs were Mark 39’s. They were 3.8 megaton bombs. That means they were 250 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. They contained more explosive power than all the bombs dropped in history combined. They both separated from the plane on its way down. The debris covered 12 square miles of North Carolina farmland. One bomb’s parachute deployed and it got tangled in a tree with the nose puncturing the ground. The other plunged into a field. Neither exploded, but the one in the tree had 3 of its 4 safety devices flipped. The plutonium and uranium of the field bomb was not recovered because it was buried deep underground. The government purchased the land above.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash
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