1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash

Nuclear bomber accident August 2026 August 2019 Savage Mountain B-52 crash Accident Boeing B-52D-80-BO (SN 56-0620).jpg 1.15 A Boeing B-52D, similar to the accident aircraft The test of B-52H 61-0023 demonstrated the loss of vertical stabilizer in strong winds. 1964 01 13 yes Structural failure Savage Mountain, Garrett County (near Frostburg, Maryland) 39.565278 N 79.075833 W 1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash type:event_region:US-MD inline,title 5: Pilot: Maj Thomas W. McCormick Co-pilot: Capt Parker C. Peedin Radar bombardier: Maj Robert J. Townley Navigator: Maj Robert Lee Payne Tail gunner: TSgt Melvin F. Wooten 3 2 (Pilot, copilot) Boeing B-52D Stratofortress 484th Bombardment Wing, Heavy (SAC, United States Air Force) 55-0060 (c/n 464012, call sign "Buzz 14") Westover Air Force Base Turner Air Force Base USA Maryland 230 Crash site in Maryland center USA Maryland W N 39.565278 79.075833 Crash site top USA Maryland W N 39.531667 79.016944 Barton, MD bottom The 1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash was a U.S. military nuclear accident in which a Cold War bomber's vertical stabilizer broke off in winter storm turbulence. The two nuclear bombs being ferried were found "relatively intact in the middle of the wreckage", according to a later U.S. Department of Defense summary, and after Fort Meade's 28th Ordnance Detachment secured them, the bombs were removed two days later to the Cumberland Municipal Airport. Three of the five crew members died. Accident description thumb|Three days prior the Savage Mountain accident, a similar incident occurred in which a B-52H lost its vertical stabilizer over New Mexico. The crew was able to maintain control and landed safely.Cenciotti David 2021-01-11 That Time A B-52H Stratofortress Bomber Lost Its Tail Over New Mexico But Managed To Land 6 Hours Later. https://theaviationist.com/2021/01/11/that-time-a-b-52h-stratofortress-bomber-lost-its-tail-over-new-mexico-but-managed-to-land-6-hours-later/ 2023-11-10 The Aviationist en-US The B-52D was returning to Georgia from Massachusetts after an earlier Chrome Dome airborne alert to Europe.August 2026 It carried two B53-0 Y1 nuclear bombs in ferry configuration, with no electrical connections between the bombs and the aircraft.Summary of Nuclear Weapon/Material Accidents and Related EOD Activities Sandia National Laboratories December 14, 1978 https://www.governmentattic.org/40docs/NNSApost1980BrokenArrow_2021.pdf U.S. Department of Energy (via Government Attic) p.17-18 (report begins on page 176 of the PDF) Near Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, on a path east of Salisbury, Pennsylvania; and after altitude changes to evade severe turbulence; the vertical stabilizerAugust 2026 broke off. The aircraft was left uncontrollable as a result; the pilot ordered the crew to bail out, and the aircraft crashed. The wreckage of the aircraft was found near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border on the Stonewall Green farm. Today, the crash site is in a private meadow of Elbow Mountain within Savage River State Forest, along the public Savage Mountain Trail just north of the Pine Swamp Road crossing. While the official DOD description of the accident says that the two weapons "were relatively intact in the approximate center of the wreckage area," an account from William L. Stevens, a safety engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, says that "both bombs broke apart on impact." Stevens further said that an Explosive Ordnance Demolition team from the military was planning to remove the bombs quickly "to reduce media coverage", under the protest of Sandia engineers who felt it was unsafe to do so until the state of the bombs was fully known. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission eventually developed a "carefully considered process" for removing the bomb pieces to an AEC facility. Later accounts by residents, and at least one local media account from the time, indicate that the bombs were removed from the site using construction equipment supplied from local businesses to the municipal airport.https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=shared&t=3136&v=qYnfG5_dNyc&ab_channel=AlleganyCountyLibrary Shriver Bucky 19 February 2021 Buzz One Four & the Nuclear-armed B 52 Crash of 1964 YouTube Crew As the only crew member who did not eject, the radar bombardier died in the crash and was not located until more than 24 hours afterward. The navigator and tail gunner died of exposure in the snow. The navigator's frozen body was found two days after the accident, 6 mi km 0 from the crash and 3 mi km 0 away from where his orange parachute was found high in a tree near Poplar Lick Run.1 Unable to disentangle his chute he released the Koch fittings and fell over 30 ft m in through the tree, suffering injuries from the branches; his survival tent and other gear remained in the tree. He then attempted to find shelter and "meandered", eventually falling down a steep slope in the dark into a river basin. After landing in the "Dye Factory field", the tail gunner trekked in the dark with a broken leg and other injuries over 100 yd m -1 to the embankment of Casselman River – in which his legs were frozen when his body was found five days later, 800 yd m -2 from a Salisbury street light.2,4 The pilot parachuted onto Maryland's Meadow Mountain ridge near the Mason–Dixon line and, after being driven to the Tomlinson Inn on the National Road in Grantsville,2 notified the United States Air Force of the crash. The co-pilot landed near New Germany Road, remained where he landed, and stayed "cozy warm" until rescued.2 See also Maryland Aviation 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash 1963 Elephant Mountain B-52 crash American Airlines Flight 587 List of aircraft structural failures References 40em Johnson Richard Riley 1995 Twenty Five Milk Runs (And a few others): To Hell's Angels and back https://books.google.com/books?id=LNCcrP6ANi8C&pg=PA261 Victoria, Canada Trafford Publishing 1-4120-2501-X 261–2 Baugher Joseph F. Joe Baugher 1955 USAF Serial Numbers http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/1955.html Encyclopedia of American Aircraft 8 November 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090908075948/http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/1955.html 8 September 2009 Sagan Scott Douglas 1995 The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons https://books.google.com/books?id=4pV_wbOnphsC&pg=PA202 Princeton University Press 0-691-02101-5 202 (footnote 125) http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/operation_and_plans/NuclearChemicalBiologicalMatters/21.pdf Narrative Summaries of Accidents Involving U.S. Nuclear Weapons: 1950–1980 United States Department of Defense 18 October 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20141013013615/http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/operation_and_plans/NuclearChemicalBiologicalMatters/21.pdf 13 October 2014 Dearth Dan 10 November 2010 Soldier secured nukes at B-52 crash in 1964 http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=256480&format=html Hagerstown, Maryland Herald News 19 October 2010 https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/2022-11/02.pdf The Origins and Evolution of S2C at Sandia National Laboratories: 1949 to 1996 Stevens William 2001 6 August 2023 Sandia National Laboratories Whetzel Dan 2002 A Night to Remember Mountain Discoveries 48–51 http://www.mountaindiscoveries.com/images/fw2007/b52.pdf 2 November 2009 Accident Description https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=48311 AviationSafetyNetwork.net 16 November 2009 Wood David B-52 Crash http://www.salisburypa.com/buzzonefour.html SalisburyPA.com Newhouse News Service 2 November 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20181130005736/http://www.salisburypa.com/buzzonefour.html 30 November 2018 (article + 5 pages of photos & clippings) Crew Bails Out As Jet Crashes Playground Daily News Fort Walton Beach, Florida United Press International Morning 17 244 1 14 January 1964 Dreisbach Mike 11 November 2009 visitor information http://www.savageriverlodge.com Savage River Lodge (The "Savage River State Forest Trail Map https://web.archive.org/web/20091218083336/http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/savageriver.asp 18 December 2009 " inaccurately names & depicts the "1962 B-52 Crash Site" as 1/6-mile on the incorrect (east) side of Westernport Road & 1/6-mile south of Swamp road. 14 January 1964 Secrecy Still Shrouds Plane Crash https://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%202/Utica%20NY%20Daily%20Observer/Utica%20NY%20Observer%201964%20pdf/Utica%20NY%20Observer%201964%20-%200344.PDF Utica Observer-Dispatch 26 November 2010 Beitler Stu 6 August 2009 Cumberland, MD (near) Bomber Crash, Jan 1964 https://www.gendisasters.com/maryland/13479/cumberland-md-near-bomber-crash-jan-1964 12 November 2009 2 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120302223313/http://www3.gendisasters.com/maryland/13479/cumberland-md-near-bomber-crash-jan-1964 dead External links Buzz One Four – a documentary film about the incident by Matt McCormick. Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1964 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Maryland Category:Garrett County, Maryland Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving nuclear weapons Category:1964 in Maryland Category:Nuclear accidents and incidents in the United States Category:January 1964 in the United States Category:Aviation accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure