歷史上十次軍方核彈誤炸事件(下)
Antonio, Texas,1963
5.德克薩斯州聖安東尼奧，1963This is a unique case, even for a broken arrow, and it goes to show that even obsolete nuclear weapons need to be handled with care as they are still dangerous.
這個案例甚至是在事故當中，也是獨一無二的。它表明即使是報廢的核武器，也要小心處理，因爲它們仍然十分危險。
The incident took place at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Specifically, it occurred at the Medina Base, an annex formerly used as a National Stockpile Site (NSS). Back in the '60s, it was also used to decommission and disassemble old nuclear weapons. On November 13, 1963, the annex experienced a massive chemical explosion when 56,000 kilograms (123,000 lb) of non-nuclear explosives detonated. Shockingly, there were no casualties, and only three workers received minor injuries. The nuclear components were stored in a different part of the building, so radioactive contamination was minimal. The incident became public immediately but didn't cause a big stir because it was overshadowed when, just a few days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
事故發生在聖安東尼奧拉克蘭空軍基地。具體位置是麥地那基地——這是一塊附屬地，曾被用作國家儲備基地。60年代，它還是老舊核武器退役、被拆卸的地方。1963年11月13日，這個地方經歷了一次巨大的化學爆炸——56000公斤（123000磅）非核炸藥爆炸了。讓人們相當驚訝的是，沒有任何人員傷亡，只有3位工人受輕傷。因爲核部件存放在建築的另一部分，所以放射污染很低。事故立即被公開，但是沒有造成嚴重後果，因爲就在幾天後，這件事就被另一件大事遮蔽了——肯尼迪總統在達拉斯遇刺身亡。
field, California,1950
4.加利福尼亞州費爾菲爾德，1950
This is one of the most serious broken arrows in terms of loss of life. By the end, 19 people were dead, and almost 180 were injured. Among the victims was Brigadier General Robert F. Travis.
這是造成重大人員傷亡的嚴重事故。最終有19人遇難，近180人受傷。受害人中有羅伯特·特拉弗斯准將。The incident took place at the Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base in California. The Korean War was raging, and the military was transporting a load of Mark IV nuclear bombs to Guam. Ten B-29 bombers were loaded with one nuclear weapon each. Shortly after takeoff, one of the planes developed engine trouble. General Travis, aboard that plane, ordered it back to the base, but another error prevented the landing gear from deploying. The pilot had to crash-land the B-29 in a remote area of the base. Of the 20 people aboard the plane, 12 died on impact, including Travis. Ground personnel tried to put out the fire before the bomb would explode, but the Mark IV detonated, and the 2,300 kilograms (5,000 lb) of conventional explosives caused a massive blast that killed seven more people. The military tried to cover up the incident by claiming that the plane was loaded with only conventional explosives. The accident report made no mention of nuclear weapons aboard the bomber. The base was soon renamed "Travis Air Force Base" in honor of the general.
事故發生在加利福尼亞州費爾菲爾德-塞速空軍基地。朝鮮戰爭一觸即發，軍方要將大量馬克4核彈運往關島。10架B-29轟炸機各載一枚核武器。起飛後不久，其中一架飛機出現了引擎故障。特拉弗斯將軍——就在這架飛機上——命令飛機返回基地，但是另一個故障導致起落架無法打開。飛行員不得不在基地邊緣強行着陸。機上共有20人，其中12人遇難，包括特拉維斯。地面人員試圖在炸彈爆炸前滅火，但是馬克4爆炸了，2300公斤（5000磅）常規炸藥製造的巨大熱浪還奪走了另外7人的生命。軍方試圖掩蓋這個意外，聲稱飛機上只有常規炸藥。對事故的報道沒有提及轟炸機上面的核武器。基地爲了紀念這位將軍，不久改稱"塔維斯空軍基地"。mares, Spain,1966
3.西班牙帕洛馬雷斯，1966
The incident that happened in Palomares, Spain on January 17, 1966 was a bad one, even for a broken arrow. For starters, it involved the destruction of two different aircraft and the deaths of seven of the people aboard them. Moreover, it involved four hydrogen bombs, two of which exploded. Lastly, it all took place in a foreign land, hurting the United States politically.
1966年1月17日發生在西班牙帕洛馬雷斯的事故結果很糟糕，屬於核事故里相當嚴重的一類。首先，事故摧毀了兩架飛機，機上7人遇難。此外還涉及4枚氫彈，其中兩枚爆炸。最後，事故發生在國外，傷及美國的政治影響力。A B-52G bomber was flying over the Mediterranean Sea when it was approached by a tanker for a standard mid-air refueling. The two planes collided, and both were completely destroyed. The bomber had been carrying four MK28 hydrogen bombs. One landed in a riverbed and was fine—it didn't leak; it didn't explode. Another fell in the sea and was recovered a few months later. Two bombs landed near the Spanish village of Palomares and exploded on impact. They contaminated a 2.5-square-kilometer (1 mi2) area, although nobody was killed in the blasts.A few months later, the US government was sued by Spanish fisherman Francisco Simo Ortis, who had helped find the bomb that fell in the sea. According to maritime law, he was entitled to the salvage reward, which was 1 percent of the haul's total value. Luckily for him, the value of that salvage happened to be $2 billion, so he asked for $20 million. He settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
一架B-52轟炸機在飛越地中海時，另一架加油機逐漸靠近準備進行空中加油。兩架飛機相撞，雙雙損毀。轟炸機載有4枚MK28氫彈。一枚墜入河底，相安無事——沒有泄露，沒有爆炸。另一枚墜入大海，幾個月之後被發現。還有兩枚在西班牙帕洛馬雷斯村莊附近墜落，瞬間爆炸。導致2.5平方公里（1平方英里）區域被污染，儘管無人在爆炸中喪生。幾個月之後，美國政府遭到西班牙漁民弗朗西斯科·西蒙·奧迪斯起訴，他爲尋找墜入大海的核彈貢獻了力量。根據海商法，他會得到一筆救援獎金，價值是打撈物的1%。幸運的是，被救援的價值剛好是20億美元，所以他要求得到2000萬美元。他在法庭外接受了一筆不公開的獎金協議。nland,1968
2.格陵蘭島，1968
This Greenland incident, commonly referred to as the Thule accident, took place just two years after Palomares and has a lot of similarities with the previous broken arrow. It involved four different hydrogen bombs, and it took place in a foreign land, causing diplomatic problems for the United States.
格陵蘭島事件，一般稱爲圖勒事故，發生在帕洛馬雷斯事故之後兩年，它們有很多相似之處。格陵蘭事件也涉及4枚氫彈，發生在國外，給美國帶來了外交問題。On January 21, 1968, a B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs was flying over Baffin Bay in Greenland when the cabin caught fire. Originally, the plan was to make an emergency landing at Thule Air Base, but the fire was too severe, and the plane didn't make it there. Six of the seven crew members made it out alive, while the bomber crashed into the sea of the bombs detonated, spreading radioactive contamination over a 300-meter (1,000 ft) area. All of the contaminated snow and ice—roughly 7,000 cubic meters (250,000 ft3)—was removed and disposed of by the United States. Another bomb simply burned without exploding, and two others fell into the icy waters. One of those was eventually recovered about 10 years later, but the other one is still somewhere at the bottom of Baffin Bay. Oddly enough, the Danish government got into more trouble than the American one. Greenland is a territory administered by Denmark, and the country had implemented a nuclear-free policy in 1957. In what would eventually get dubbed "Thulegate," it came out that the Danish government was secretly allowing the stockpiling of nuclear weapons on its soil during peacetime.
1968年1月21日，一架攜帶4枚氫彈的B-52轟炸機飛越格陵蘭島巴芬灣時，機艙着火。最初，飛機打算在圖勒空軍基地緊急着陸，但因爲火勢嚴重，飛機無法飛抵預定地點。7名機組人員中有6人生還，而轟炸機衝入冰海。其中一枚炸彈爆炸，其輻射污染了方圓300米（1000英尺）的區域。所有被污染的雪和冰——約7000立方米（250000立方英尺）——被美國清理掉。另一枚炸彈沒有爆炸就燃燒了，其他兩枚墜入結冰的水域。其中一枚在大約10年之後最終被找到，但最後一枚仍在巴芬灣海底某處。更爲古怪的是，丹麥政府面對的問題比美國政府更多。格陵蘭島是由丹麥管轄的領土，丹麥在1957年通過了一項核自由政策。這後來被戲稱爲"圖勒門"，從中可以看出丹麥政府暗中允許和平時期在其領土上儲存核武器。querque, New Mexico,1957
1.新墨西哥州阿爾伯克基，1957
We've finally arrived at the most famous broken arrow in US history, one mostly made famous by the government covering it up for almost 30 years.
這是美國曆史上最著名的核事故，主要因爲美國政府遮掩了近30年。On May 22, 1957, a B-36 bomber was transporting a giant Mark 17 hydrogen bomb from Texas to the Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was one of the biggest nuclear bombs ever made, 8 meters (25 ft) in length and with an explosive yield of 10 megatons. Everything was going fine until the plane was about 6 kilometers (4 mi) from the base. Then, for reasons that remain unknown, the bomb's safety harness failed. The giant hydrogen bomb fell through the bay doors of the bomber and plummeted 500 meters (1,700 ft) to the pieces of good news came after this. First, the plutonium pits hadn't been installed in the bomb during transportation, so there was no chance of a nuclear explosion. Second, the bomb landed in a mostly empty field. It produced a giant explosion, left a 3.5-meter (12 ft) deep crater, and spread radioactive contaminants over a 1.5-kilometer (1 mi) area. But the damage was minimal, and there was only one casualty—an unfortunate cow that was grazing in the vicinity of the explosion. For 29 years, the government kept the accident at Kirtland a secret. This practically ensured that, when it was eventually revealed, everyone treated it like a huge deal, even though much worse broken arrows had happened since.
1957年5月22日，一架B-36轟炸機從德克薩斯州運送一枚巨大的馬克17氫彈到新墨西哥阿爾伯克基附近的科特蘭空軍基地。這顆炸彈是迄今爲止最大的核彈之一，長8米（25英尺），爆炸力達1000萬噸級。直到飛機飛到距離基地6千米（4英里）左右之前，一切都很正常。隨即——原因至今不明，炸彈的保險帶鬆開了。巨大的氫彈穿過飛機艙門，跌入地下500米（1700英尺）。最後傳來兩個好消息。第一，核彈在運輸過程中沒有裝入鈈核，所以不存在覈爆炸。第二，炸彈落在極其荒涼的地方。結果發生了劇烈爆炸，留下3.5米（12英尺）深的大坑，1.5千米（1英里）之外都有輻射污染。但是這樣的危害已經是最小的了，只有一個受害者——一頭不幸的牛，它在爆炸點附近吃草。政府爲科特蘭發生的事保密29年。這使得最終大家知道這件事的時候，都把它當作一件大案，儘管之後發生了更糟糕的核事故。編輯：Amy 來源：前十網
