1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident
375th Bombardment Squadron, 308th Bombardment Wing, United States Air Force (USAF) Boeing B-47E-LM Stratojet · Inadvertent nuclear weapon release
From Hunter Army Air Field (SVN) to RAF Bruntingthorpe
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Incident
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- Unknown
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 6
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Boeing B-47E-LM Stratojet
- Aircraft type
- Boeing B-47
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 53-1876A
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Hunter Army Air Field (SVN)To RAF Bruntingthorpe
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident was the inadvertent release of a nuclear weapon from a United States Air Force B-47 bomber over Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The bomb, which did not have its fissile nuclear core installed at the time of the accident, impacted with the ground, and its conventional high explosives detonated. The explosion injured six people and caused damage to several buildings in the area. The Air Force was sued by the victims, who received $54,000.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident” (revision 1370377157, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident
- Revision
- 1370377157 · 2026-08-20 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q17985148
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident" (page 43628133, revision 1370377157)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.