On 19 November 1968, a B-52 crashed at Kadena Air Base, on the island of

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Aborted takeoff

The

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

(USAF)

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile ...

(SAC)

B-52D Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air ...

(serial number 55-0103) of the

4252d Strategic Wing The 376th Air Expeditionary Wing (376 AEW) is an inactive wing of the United States Air Force. It was last stationed at the Transit Center at Manas International Airport, Kyrgyz Republic, supporting U.S. and ISAF operations in Afghanistan. Durin ...

had a full bomb load and broke up and caught fire after the aircraft aborted

takeoff Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff. For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a t ...

Kadena Air Base (IATA: DNA, ICAO: RODN) is a highly strategic United States Air Force base in the towns of Kadena and Chatan and the city of Okinawa, in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is often referred to as the "Keystone of the Pacific" because of its highl ...

while it was conducting an

Operation Arc Light During Operation Arc Light (sometimes Arclight) from 1965 to 1973, the United States Air Force deployed B-52 Stratofortresses from bases in the U.S. Territory of Guam to provide battlefield air interdiction during the Vietnam War. This included ...

bombing mission to

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

18-09-4 Artillery projectiles Chibana Ammunition Depot September 1966

Resultant fire and explosion

The fire resulting from the aborted takeoff ignited the aircraft's fuel and detonated the bomb load of twenty-four bombs, (twelve under each wing) and forty two bombs inside the

bomb bay The bomb bay or weapons bay on some military aircraft is a compartment to carry bombs, usually in the aircraft's fuselage, with "bomb bay doors" which open at the bottom. The bomb bay doors are opened and the bombs are dropped when over th ...

and caused a blast so powerful that it created an immense crater under the burning aircraft some deep and across. The blast blew out the windows in the dispensary at

Naha Air Base , formally known as the , is an air base of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force formerly under control of the United States Air Force. It is located at Naha Airport on the Oroku Peninsula in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. History Imperial Period Naha Airf ...

(now

Naha Airport is a second class airport located west of the city hallAIS Japan
in

Recovery and investigation

The aircraft was reduced "to a black spot on the runway" The blast was so large that Air Force spokesman had to announce that there had only been conventional bombs on board. Nothing remained of the aircraft except landing gear and engine assemblies, the tail turret, a few bombs, and some loose explosive that had not detonated. Very small fragments of aircraft metal from the enormous blast were "spread like

confetti Confetti are small pieces or streamers of paper, mylar, or metallic material which are usually thrown at celebrations, especially parades and weddings. The origins are from the Latin ''confectum'', with ''confetti'' the plural of Italian ''con ...

," leaving the crew to use a

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

to refer to the cleanup work, calling it, "' 52 Pickup." The

Electronic Warfare Officer In the U.S. Air Force, an electronic warfare officer (EWO) is a trained aerial navigator who has received training in enemy threat systems, electronic warfare principles and overcoming enemy air defense systems. These officers are specialists in f ...

and the Crew Chief later died from burn injuries after being evacuated from Okinawa. Two Okinawan workers were also injured in the blasts. Had the aircraft become airborne, it might have crashed about north of the runway and directly into the Chibana ammunition storage depot. The Chibana depot stored ammunition, bombs, high explosives, and tens of thousands artillery shells and is now known to have held warheads for 19 different atomic and thermonuclear weapons systems in the hardened

weapon storage area {{unreferenced, date=November 2014 Weapon storage areas (WSA), also known as special ammunition storage (SAS), were extremely well guarded and well defended locations where NATO nuclear weapons were stored during the Cold War era. In most situatio ...

s. The weapons included

W28 W, or w, is the twenty-third and fourth-to-last letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. It represents a consonant, but in some languages it r ...

warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...

s used in the

MGM-13 Mace The Martin Mace was a ground-launched cruise missile developed from the earlier Martin TM-61 Matador. It used a new self-contained navigation system that eliminated the need to get updates from ground-based radio stations, and thereby allowed i ...

cruise missile and

W31 The W31 was an American nuclear warhead used for two US missiles and as an atomic demolition munition. The W31 was produced from 1959, with the last versions phased out in 1989. All versions were roughly the same dimensions and weight: in di ...

s used in

MGR-1 Honest John The MGR-1 Honest John rocket was the first nuclear-capable surface-to-surface rocket in the United States arsenal.The first nuclear-authorized ''guided'' missile was the MGM-5 Corporal. Originally designated Artillery Rocket XM31, the first un ...

and

MIM-14 Nike-Hercules The Nike Hercules, initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14, was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. It was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead, but ...

(Nike-H) missiles. The storage depot at Chibana also included 52 igloos in the Project Red Hat

chemical weapons A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized Ammunition, munition that uses chemicals chemical engineering, formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be an ...

storage area and presumably

Project 112 Project 112 was a biological and chemical weapon experimentation project conducted by the United States Department of Defense from 1962 to 1973. The project started under John F. Kennedy's administration, and was authorized by his Secretary ...

's biological Agents.Organizational History- 267th Chemical Company, Letter of Capt. Charles H. Vogeler RIBCD-267CML (March 26, 1966)
/ref> The crash led to demands to remove the B-52s from Okinawa and strengthened a push for the reversion from U.S. rule in Okinawa. Okinawans had correctly suspected that the Chibana depot held nuclear weapons. The crash sparked fears that another potential disaster on the island could put the chemical and nuclear stockpile and the surrounding population in jeopardy and increased the urgency of moving them to a less populated and less active storage location.

References

; Notes {{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1968, State=collapsed 20th-century military history of the United States Aviation accidents and incidents in 1968

Accidents and incidents involving United States Air Force aircraft Aviation accidents and incidents in Japan November 1968 events in Asia 1968 in Japan

Aborted takeoff

Resultant fire and explosion

Recovery and investigation

See also

References