{"id":150709,"date":"2025-09-17T22:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/150709\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T22:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:24:08","slug":"today-in-history-september-18-dropped-socket-nearly-sets-off-nine-megaton-nuclear-bomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/150709\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History &#8211; September 18: Dropped socket nearly sets off nine megaton nuclear bomb"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A forgotten torque wrench on September 18, 1980, led to a blast that nearly set off a nuclear warhead.<\/p>\n<p>An airman at a missile silo in the US state of Arkansas was doing a check on a Titan II missile with a ratchet spanner instead of a torque wrench.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, a 3.6kg socket fell 24m down the silo before piercing the side of the missile&#8217;s fuel tank.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/92cdfdc2-817b-4e24-b4ec-802b9376bfa2.jpeg\"   alt=\"Authorities planning their next move after the explosion.\"\/>Authorities planning their next move after the explosion. (Getty)<\/p>\n<p>A cloud of rocket fuel then started leaking into the enclosed space, filling the confined space with explosive gas.<\/p>\n<p>When an exhaust fan was switched on hours later, it created a spark that set off an explosion.<\/p>\n<p>The initial blast was so powerful it sent a 750-tonne silo door flying.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was the loudest explosion I&#8217;d ever heard in my life\u2014before or since,&#8221; airman Greg Devlin told Popular Mechanics.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A concussion of wind hit me like a truck, and I slid 60 feet, and every foot, it felt like I was going faster. The only thought I had at that point was, &#8216;I know I&#8217;m a dead man. I just hope it doesn&#8217;t hurt.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Witnesses said after the initial blast, there was a brief pause, then a bright red flame shot 60 metres in the air.<\/p>\n<p>A W53 thermonuclear warhead was thrown 30m from the silo and hit the ground.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/e4b30503-6c41-46ec-bbde-cf68024a0033.jpeg\"   alt=\"The explosion caused a major scare among residents in Arkansas.\"\/>The explosion caused a major scare among residents in Arkansas. (Getty)<\/p>\n<p>The warhead had enough power to set off a 9000-kiloton blast.<\/p>\n<p>For contrast, the Hiroshima bomb was just 15 kilotons.<\/p>\n<p>But fortunately, the warhead was not triggered by the impact.<\/p>\n<p>Had the bomb gone off, it likely would have wiped out the city of Little Rock and created radioactive fallout extending across the US south.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, just one man was killed and 21 others were injured in the blast.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/4eb28404-baf6-48fb-98ec-d6c12bf67053.jpeg\"   alt=\"The Strategic Air Command Facility at Little Rock Air Force Base, in Arkansas.\"\/>The Strategic Air Command Facility at Little Rock Air Force Base, in Arkansas. (Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Both President Jimmy Carter and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton assured the public there had been no radioactive leak.<\/p>\n<p>The launch complex was never rebuilt.<\/p>\n<p>The missile silo was covered in earth and is now privately held land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A forgotten torque wrench on September 18, 1980, led to a blast that nearly set off a nuclear&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-150709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}