Research Analyst Samuel Hickey published an op-ed coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima in the Raleigh News & Observer.
Nearly six decades ago, in the skies over Goldsboro, North Carolina, two hydrogen bombs fell from a B-52 bomber. One bomb parachute deployed, one did not. Three out of four safety switches were set to detonate on the bomb that landed softly. The second slammed into the Earth and should have exploded. A twist of fate and one switch kept Goldsboro out of the history books as the location of the worst “accident” since human ingenuity split the atom.
If things had gone the other way, the combined explosive power of about 500 Hiroshima bombs would have been unleashed. An estimated 60,000 people would have died instantly, and the radioactive fallout could have endangered people as far away as New York. Read more
