1965 Philippine Sea A-4 incident

Nuclear weapon loss incident August 2026 Mk43.jpg 320px A MK43 free-fall nuclear weapon on a handling dolly December 5, 1965 Pre-flight human error Incident Philippine SeaAugust 2022 27 33.2 N 131 19.3 E type:isle_region:JP-46_source:dewiki dms title,inline August 2022 1 Pilot (LTJG Douglas M. Webster) Douglas A-4E Skyhawk 12px Attack Squadron VA-56Carrier Air Wing Five BuNo 151022 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 Ticonderoga CV-14 6.2022-09-15 The Bizarre Mystery of the Only Armed Nuke America Ever Lost https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-bizarre-mystery-of-the-only-armed-nuke-america-ever-lost/ Vice.com 29 August 2022 2022-09-15 https://web.archive.org/web/20220915080616/https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3p3xw/the-bizarre-mystery-of-the-only-armed-nuke-america-ever-lost live The aircraft, pilot and weapon were never recovered.U.S. discloses accidents involving nuclear weapons Richard Halloran The New York Times May 26, 1981 https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/26/us/us-discloses-accidents-involving-nuclear-weapons.html February 15, 2023 August 30, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190830194355/https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/26/us/us-discloses-accidents-involving-nuclear-weapons.html live The accident On 5 December 1965, 31 days after Ticonderogas departure from U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay in the Philippines, the attack jet was pushed backwards over the side, off the number 2 elevator during a training exercise while being rolled from the number 2 hangar bay to the elevator.http://a4skyhawk.org/3e/va56/webster-va56.htm LTJG Douglas M. Webster A4skyhawk.org 1965-12-05 2022-07-22 https://web.archive.org/web/20101206021038/http://a4skyhawk.org/3e/va56/webster-va56.htm 2010-12-06 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 recoveredhttps://www.atomicarchive.com/almanac/broken-arrows/index.html Broken Arrows: Nuclear Weapons Accidents atomicarchive.com Almanac July 22, 2022 April 23, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220423202633/https://www.atomicarchive.com/almanac/broken-arrows/index.html live from the 16000 ft m on depth.August 2022 The accident was said to occur 68 mi nmi km from Kikai Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.Maruyama Kuniaki 丸山邦明 Gunji kichi mondai to Amami ja:軍事基地問題と奄美 Amami sengo-shi ja:奄美戦後史 Kagoshima-ken chihō jichi kenkyūsho 鹿児島県地方自治研究所 2005 ja 254 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.http://www.gonavy.jp/CV-CV14f.html CV-14 2012-06-14 2021-02-23 https://web.archive.org/web/20210223000823/http://www.gonavy.jp/CV-CV14f.html live 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. 24 Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States) Peterson Paul David Clarke Steven Anderson An Introduction to Los Alamos National Laboratory 2022-10-25 2022-10-11 1891826 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1891826 2022-10-25 https://web.archive.org/web/20221025134620/https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1891826 live 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.May 9, 1989 U.S. Confirms '65 Loss of H-Bomb Near Japanese Islands Politics https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/05/09/us-confirms-65-loss-of-h-bomb-near-japanese-islands/947ccbfa-f91b-48a0-99eb-ab9f18dfb399/ The Washington Post Washington, D.C. July 22, 2022 March 28, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210328074756/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/05/09/us-confirms-65-loss-of-h-bomb-near-japanese-islands/947ccbfa-f91b-48a0-99eb-ab9f18dfb399/ live The revelation inspired a diplomatic inquiry from Japan requesting details.Washington, D.C. The Washington Post Japan Asks Details On Lost H-Bomb 10 May 1989 A-35 See also Broken Arrow (nuclear) List of military nuclear accidents References Ticonderoga Cruise Reports http://www.history.navy.mil/download/cv-deploy-vietnam.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20040907220034/http://www.history.navy.mil/download/cv-deploy-vietnam.htm 2004-09-07 Navy.mil weblist of Aug 2003 compilation from cruise reports 2012-04-20 The National Archives hold[s] deck logs for aircraft carriers for the Vietnam Conflict. Oskins James C Maggelet Michael H. 2007 Broken Arrow: The Declassified History of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accidents https://books.google.com/books?id=gi7HARO8vTcC&pg=PA195 Raleigh, North Carolina Lulu Publishing 978-1-4357-0361-2 217April 2022 Category:1965 in military history Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1965 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving nuclear weapons Category:Cold War military history of the United States Category:1965 in Japan Category:United States Navy in the 20th century Category:Philippine Sea Category:Japan–United States relations Category:December 1965 in Asia