Тыби аралындағы ядролық бомба оқиғасы

US Air Force incident involving a nuclear bomb

The Tybee Island mid air collision was an incident on February 5, 1958, in which the United States Air Force lost a Mark 15 nuclear bomb in the waters off Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia, United States. During a night practice exercise, an F 86 fighter plane collided with the B 47 bomber carrying the large weapon. The bomb was jettisoned to help prevent a crash and explosion. After several unsuccessful searches, the weapon was declared lost in Wassaw Sound off the shores of Tybee Island.

The B 47 bomber was on a simulated combat mission from Homestead Air Force Base in Florida, carrying a single bomb. At about 2:00 a. m. EST (UTC−5), an F 86 fighter collided with the six engine B 47. The F 86 pilot, Lt. Clarence Stewart, ejected and parachuted to safety near Estill, South Carolina, 10 mile (16 km) north of the fighter's crash site east of Sylvania, Georgia. The damaged B 47 remained airborne, plummeting from 38000 feet (11582 m) until the pilot, Col. Howard Richardson, regained control at 20000 feet (6096 m). The crew requested permission to jettison the bomb, in order to reduce weight and prevent the weapon from exploding during an emergency landing. Permission was granted, and the bomb was jettisoned at 7200 feet (2195 m), while the plane was traveling at about The crew did not see an explosion when the weapon struck the sea. They managed to land the B 47 successfully at nearby Hunter Air Force Base, just south of Savannah. Richardson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for safely landing the bomber. The Air Force maintains that its "nuclear capsule" (physics package), used to initiate the nuclear reaction, was removed before its flight aboard the B 47. As noted in the Atomic Energy Commission "Form AL 569 Temporary Custodian Receipt (for maneuvers)", signed by the aircraft commander, the bomb contained a simulated cap made of lead. However, according to 1966 Congressional testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense W. J. Howard, the Tybee Island bomb was a "complete weapon, a bomb with a nuclear capsule" and one of two weapons lost that contained a plutonium trigger. Nevertheless, a study of the Strategic Air Command documents indicates that Alert Force test flights in February 1958 with the older Mark 15 payloads were not authorized to fly with nuclear capsules on board. Such approval would not come until safer "sealed pit nuclear capsule" weapons began to be deployed in June 1958.

Starting on February 6, 1958, the Air Force 2700th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron and 100 Navy personnel equipped with hand held sonar and galvanic drag and cable sweeps mounted a search. On April 16, the military announced the search had been unsuccessful. Based on a hydrographic survey in 2001, the bomb was thought by the Department of Energy to lie buried under of silt at the bottom of Wassaw Sound.

By 2007, no undue levels of unnatural radioactive contamination have been detected in the regional Upper Floridan aquifer by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (over and above the already high levels thought to be due to monazite).

In February 2015, an article appeared on a fake news web site which claimed that the bomb had been found by vacationing Canadian divers and had been removed from the bay. The spurious story spread widely via social media. In the MonsterVerse graphic novel Godzilla Dominion, the Titan named Scylla finds the sunken warhead off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, having sensed its radiation as a potential food source. Godzilla and the Coast Guard force Scylla to retreat, and they safely recover the bomb.