1965 Philippine Sea A-4 incident
A MK43 free-fall nuclear weapon on a handling dolly
Incident
DateDecember 5, 1965
SummaryPre-flight human error
SitePhilippine Sea
27°33.2′N 131°19.3′E / 27.5533°N 131.3217°E / 27.5533; 131.3217
Aircraft typeDouglas A-4E Skyhawk
Operator Attack Squadron VA-56[1]
Carrier Air Wing Five
RegistrationBuNo 151022[1]
Fatalities1 Pilot (LTJG Douglas M. Webster)[2]

The 1965 Philippine Sea A-4 crash was a Broken Arrow incident in which a United States Navy Douglas A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft carrying a nuclear weapon fell into the sea off Japan from the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga.[3][4] The aircraft, pilot and weapon were never recovered.[5]

The accident

On 5 December 1965, 31 days after Ticonderoga's departure from U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay in the Philippines,[3] the attack jet was pushed backwards over the side, off the #2 elevator during a training exercise while being rolled from the number 2 hangar bay to the number 2 elevator.[2] The pilot, Lieutenant (junior grade) Douglas M. Webster; the aircraft, Douglas A-4E BuNo 151022 of VA-56; and the B43 nuclear bomb were never recovered[6] from the 16,000 ft (4,900 m) depth. The accident was said to occur 68 miles (59 nmi; 109 km) from Kikai Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.[7]

Ticonderoga had aboard Carrier Air Wing Five during this cruise, with two squadrons of Skyhawks. The lost aircraft was part of Attack Squadron 56 (VA-56); VA-144 was the other.[8]

Number of weapons

Though most sources state that a single weapon was involved, a document from Los Alamos National Lab indicates that two weapons were involved.[9]

Revelation

It was not until 1989 that the United States Department of Defense revealed the proximity of the lost one-megaton H-bomb to Japanese territory.[10] The revelation inspired a diplomatic inquiry from Japan requesting details.[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Oskins, James C; Maggelet, Michael H. (2007). Broken Arrow: The Declassified History of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accidents. Raleigh, North Carolina: Lulu Publishing. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-4357-0361-2.
  2. 1 2 "LTJG Douglas M. Webster". A4skyhawk.org. 1965-12-05. Archived from the original on 2010-12-06. Retrieved 2022-07-22.
  3. 1 2 "Ticonderoga Cruise Reports". Archived from the original (Navy.mil weblist of Aug 2003 compilation from cruise reports) on 2004-09-07. Retrieved 2012-04-20. The National Archives hold[s] deck logs for aircraft carriers for the Vietnam Conflict.
  4. ↑ "The Bizarre Mystery of the Only Armed Nuke America Ever Lost". www.vice.com. Archived from the original on 2022-09-15. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  5. ↑ Richard Halloran (May 26, 1981). "U.S. discloses accidents involving nuclear weapons". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 30, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Broken Arrows: Nuclear Weapons Accidents". Almanac. atomicarchive.com. Archived from the original on April 23, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  7. ↑ Maruyama Kuniaki 丸山邦明 (2005). "Gunji kichi mondai to Amami" 軍事基地問題と奄美. In Kagoshima-ken chihō jichi kenkyūsho 鹿児島県地方自治研究所 (ed.). Amami sengo-shi 奄美戦後史 (in Japanese). p. 254.
  8. ↑ "CV-14". Archived from the original on 2021-02-23. Retrieved 2012-06-14.
  9. ↑ Peterson, Paul David; Clarke, Steven Anderson (2022-10-11). An Introduction to Los Alamos National Laboratory (Report). Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). p. 24. Archived from the original on 2022-10-25. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
  10. ↑ "U.S. Confirms '65 Loss of H-Bomb Near Japanese Islands". Politics. The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. May 9, 1989. Archived from the original on March 28, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Japan Asks Details On Lost H-Bomb". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. 10 May 1989. p. A-35.
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