Benutzer:TK-lion/drafts/B-58 AFB Bunker Hill 1964
On 8 December 1964, a B-58 carrying five nuclear weapons, including a 9-megaton thermonuclear bomb, slid off an icy runway and caught fire during a training mission. While taxiing it was caught in the jet blast from the aircraft in front of it while turning onto the runway and applying power of its own. This caused the bomber to lose control and slide off the left hand side of the taxiway. The left main landing gear passed over a flush mounted taxiway light fixture, Vorlage:Cvt further the landing gear grazed the left edge of a concrete light base. After traveling another 10 ft the left main landing gear struck an electrical manhole box which caused it to collapse, rupturing a fuel tank. The aircraft then caught fire.[1]
The aircraft commander, Leary Johnson, and defensive system operator, Roger Hall, were able to escape with minor injuries. However, the navigator, Manuel "Rocky" Cervantes, ejected in his escape capsule, which landed Vorlage:Cvt from the bomber; he did not survive. The five nuclear weapons on board were burned, causing contamination of the crash area. The Air Force claimed that the crash site was cleaned of contamination, however, it was discovered that the aircraft and some of the soil from the area were only removed to another site on the base and reburied. The burned bombs were shipped to Atomic Energy Commission facilities at Clarksville, Tennessee, Medina Base, Texas, Rocky Flats, Colorado, Miamisburg, Ohio, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where it was determined that none of the plutonium from the weapons was released. A 1996 survey found that the area of the crash were still contaminated and required further remediation of the site.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn