In 1980, an American nuclear missile of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) LGM-25C Titan II exploded due to a fuel leak in the launch bunker in the town of Damascas, Arkansas.
According to Popular Mechanics magazine, the explosion was caused by an unintended accident. Specifically, on the evening of September 18, 1980, a technician dropped a tool weighing about 4 kg during normal work.
This has happened before, but the new incident was very serious when the device bounced off the bottom, ripped apart the rocket and pierced the fuselage. Soon after, the bunker began to fill up with toxic and explosive fuel.
In order to extinguish the flame and expel the flammable vapors, the launch cellar began to be filled with water. Security officials said there was no need to evacuate people, the situation was under control. Journalists and law enforcement officers gathered at the gates of the base.
However, at night, eyewitnesses said that the air gradually turned milky white, and reinforced concrete fragments fell from the sky, signaling an impending disaster.
Later in an interview about the moment, the first thought for local radio editor Sid King when recounting the events of that night was fear of an impending disaster.
According to the introduction, Titan II is the most powerful missile among US ICBMs carrying a W53 nuclear warhead with an explosive yield of 9 megatons. Unlike Titan I, the fuel mixture is kept at room temperature and mixed almost instantaneously.
US Air Force pilot Greg Devlin later said they were aware of the fuel’s instability and potential for explosion, but they were so used to it that they didn’t panic or think too much.
The aforementioned intercontinental ballistic missiles have been placed in a state of readiness for launch at any time, but they require constant monitoring and maintenance.
Apparently the disaster handlers turned on the ventilation and the charge caused an explosion in the launch hatch. The shock wave blew away the many-ton shell of the bunker, miraculously no one was injured at the time.
Debris splattered everywhere, and a nuclear warhead was also hurled to the surface, but fortunately the safety mechanism worked well and did not trigger a thermonuclear explosion.
For comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was about 15 kilotons, in Nagasaki – about 21 kilotons. One can hardly imagine the consequences of a 9 megaton warhead explosion.
Authorities and the US Army tried to cover up this incident. As a result of the explosion, one of the personnel died: caused by pulmonary edema caused by toxic fuel, 21 other US Air Force personnel were injured but no civilian casualties were reported.
The Disaster Investigative Committee singled out the human factor as the main cause and considered the rockets safe to continue operating. After that, the Titan II ICBM continued to serve until 1987 before being retired.
Soucre: military-wiki.com
