A switch helped US escape catastrophe in 1961: Report

Updated: Sunday, September 22, 2013, 15:46 [IST]

London, Sept 22: The United States went to the edge of disaster when its air force almost detonated a huge atomic bomb over North Carolina on January 23, 1961. The sensational news was gathered from a newly declassified document published by the Guardian newspaper on Saturday.

The world's most powerful nation had its scariest moment when a B-52 aircraft carrying two hydrogen bombs accidentally dropped them over the city of Goldsboro in North Carolina after a mid-air crash. Three of the deadly bombs began to detonate and while three safety mechanisms meant to stop unintended detonation failed and it all depended on a single switch to save the day for America and the world and it clicked.

A switch stopped the powerful bombs from getting detonated and saved the USA

Had the fourth switch also failed, places like Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and also New York could have been wiped out. The bombs were 260 times more powerful than those devastated Hirosima and Nagasika in Japan in August 1945, according to the Guardian report.

The incident took place when the Cold War between the USA and the erstwhile Soviet Union was at its peak.

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