Somewhere at the bottom of the Philippine Sea lies an undetonated hydrogen bomb with approximately 70 times the power of the one dropped on Hiroshima.
The 1965 disaster, in which the weapon sank to the bottom of the sea, is just one of at least three cases in which the United States lost nuclear weapons.
According to some sources, the number could be as high as six, and that does not include losses from other countries.
At least three bombs have been lost around the world (Photo: DailyMail.com)
USS Ticonderoga
Since 1950, there have been several dozen “Broken Arrow” incidents involving the accidental launch, theft, detonation or loss of US nuclear weapons.
They include the 1980 Damascus incident in rural Arkansas, where a fuel explosion ejected a nine-megaton weapon from its silo.
But only three cases of nuclear weapons disappearing have been documented.
One of the missing nuclear weapons cases involved a one-megaton B43 thermonuclear bomb that went missing during the Vietnam War after a freak accident in the Philippine Sea.
The bomb was carried by a Navy A-4E Skyhawk that attempted to land aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga in 1965.
As it docked on the plane’s elevator, it began to roll relentlessly while the military whistled, shouted, and tried to block its tires.
The pilot on board, Lieutenant Douglas Webster, the plane and its cargo have not been seen since.
Retired U.S. Navy Petty Officer Delbert Mitchell, who worked as an aviation gunner aboard the Ticonderoga, told Naval History that he and the other gunners “saw the Skyhawk suddenly hit the end of the elevator and fell overboard.”
‘We never saw Lieutenant Webster after he climbed into the cockpit nor did we learn what efforts he might have tried to make to get out of the Skyhawk, but we were stunned to witness a plane, a pilot and a nuclear weapon fall into the ocean.
‘We watched helplessly as the attack plane and the pilot sank into the abyss and the ship continued to move forward. It was horrible to see a human being die before our very eyes, unable to save him.’
A B43 bomb similar to the missing one
Lieutenant Douglas Webster
Another case that is still shrouded in mystery occurred in 1958 during a military exercise off Tybee Island, near Savannah, Georgia.
A B-47 bomber was involved in a collision during an exercise and dropped a nuclear weapon over the water so that the bomb would not be involved in an emergency landing.
The 7,600-pound Mark 15 bomb had an explosive yield of up to 3.8 megatons.
B-47 crew, from left, Maj. Howard Richardson, Lt. Bob Lagerstrom, and Capt. Leland Woolard
The Boeing B-47 Stratojet collided with an F-65 Saber aircraft during training, and the Stratojet pilot was worried the bomb would come loose and detonate.
Pilot Colonel Howard Richardson dropped the bomb into the waters of Wassaw Sound.
Crews attempted to find the bomb for two months, but it was never unearthed and became well known among local residents, who refer to it as the “Tybee bomb.”
Controversy remains over whether the bomb actually had the plutonium core needed to detonate, and the US government has said it contained no core.
But Jack Howard’s testimony in 1966 suggested the bomb was a “full nuclear weapon”, although military sources have since suggested that was “a mistake”.
Colonel Richardson has said that he has a signed receipt showing that the bomb did not have an active capsule (which would allow it to detonate).
A Mark 15 thermonuclear device
Colonel Richardson later said: “What he should be remembered for is landing that plane safely. I guess this bomb is what they will remember me for.”
Another major source of “lost” nuclear weapons has been submarines, and the Soviet submarine K-219, which sank in 1986, is believed to have carried more than a dozen thermonuclear weapons.
In 1968, the nuclear attack submarine USS Scorpion sank in the middle of the Atlantic, with the loss of 99 lives and two nuclear-tipped torpedoes.
The submarine and weapons have never been recovered.
Technical problems with the submarine had led crew members to refer to the doomed submarine as “Scrapiron.”
A Boeing Stratojet
Making a final trip back to base, the submarine disappeared and the crew did not respond to the call sign after the submarine failed to show up at the assigned time.
The wreck was found on October 29 after having imploded beneath the Atlantic, with all 99 sailors still on board.
Conspiracy theorists have suggested that the Scorpion was actually sunk by a Soviet ship, claiming that the high number of submarines sunk in 1968 suggests a secret war waged beneath the surface.