"Broken arrows" are nuclear accidents that don't create a risk of nuclear war. Examples include accidental nuclear detonations or non-nuclear detonations of nuclear weapons. So far, the US Department of Defense recognizes 32 such incidents. They're sobering examples of how one tiny mistake could potentially cause massive unintentional damage.
美国国防部用"断箭"表示不会引发核战争危机的核事故。意外核爆炸和核武器非核爆炸也是其中的两例。迄今为止，美国国防部认定了32起类似事故。这些发人深省的悲剧证明：细微的错误可以促发潜在隐患，造成不可估量的意外损失。
10.不列颠哥伦比亚，1950
The first recorded American military nuclear weapon loss took place in British Columbia on February 14, 1950. A Convair B-36 was on its way from Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska to the Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas. The bomber was scheduled to take part in a mission that simulated a nuclear attack on San Francisco. The role of the bomber was to see if these kinds of planes could perform bomb runs in extremely cold weather. That way, the military could see how the bomber would perform if it ever got attacked by the Soviets and had to respond.
据记载，美国军队第一次损失核武器是在1950年2月14日的不列颠哥伦比亚。一架康维尔B-36轰炸机正从阿拉斯加费尔班克斯的艾尔森空军基地飞往德克萨斯沃思堡市的卡斯威尔空军基地。这架轰炸机被安排参与一次模拟旧金山遭到核打击的行动。安排这架轰炸机的目的就是看看这类飞机能否在极低气温条件下发射导弹。这样，军队就能知道在遭到苏联攻击时，他们如何反应，轰炸机如何发挥作用。
Because it was meant to go on a mock bomb run, the plane was carrying a Mark IV atomic bomb. However, the military wasn't actually planning to nuke anybody, so the bomb didn't contain the plutonium core necessary for a nuclear detonation. Even so, it still had about 2,250 kilograms (5,000 lb) of regular explosives, so the Mark IV could still create a huge explosion. In one way, the mission was a success. The military wanted to find out whether or not the B-36 could attack the Soviets during the Arctic winter, and they learned the answer—it couldn't. Due to the harsh weather conditions, three of the six engines failed. The crew was forced to bail out, but they first jettisoned the Mark IV and detonated it over the Inside Passage in Canada. Five of the 17 men aboard the B-36 died.
因为这是模拟轰炸，所以飞机携带了一枚马克4原子弹。尽管如此，军方实际不想攻击任何人，因此炸弹里没有核爆炸必须的钚核。即便这样，里面仍然有2250公斤（5000磅）常规炸药，马克4依旧可以制造剧烈爆炸。从某方面讲，这次行动成功了。军方想知道B-36能否在北半球的冬天对苏联发动进攻，他们找到了答案——不能。由于天气状况恶劣，6个引擎有3个熄灭。机组被迫跳伞，但他们首先抛弃了马克4，在加拿大内海航道上空将其引爆。机上共17人，其中5人罹难。
9.Mars Bluff, South Carolina,1958
9.南卡罗来纳州火星崖，1958
Mars Bluff isn't a sprawling metropolis with millions of people and giant skyscrapers. It's a tiny, unincorporated community located in Florence County, South Carolina. However, it does have one claim to fame—on March 11, 1958, Mars Bluff was accidentally bombed by the United States Air Force with a Mark 6 nuke.
火星崖并非正在扩展的大都会，没有成千上百万的人口，也没有高耸入云的摩天楼。它很小，是个没有市政级别的居民社区，位于南卡罗来纳州佛罗伦萨县。然而，它却一举成名——1958年3月11日，火星崖竟然遭到美国空军马克6核弹轰炸。
A Boeing B-47E-LM Stratojet departed from Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia and was headed to England. It was part of Operation Snow Flurry, in which bombers flew to England to perform mock drops to test their accuracy. The Boeing in question had a Mark VI nuclear bomb onboard. As with the British Columbia incident, the bomb was inactive but still had thousands of pounds of explosives.This one is entirely the captain's fault. While he was performing checks on the bomb, he accidentally grabbed the emergency release pin. This released the bomb from its harness, and it fell right through the bomber doors to the ground 4,500 meters (15,000 ft) below. The bomb landed on the house of Walter Gregg. Fortunately, nobody was killed in the ensuing explosion, although Gregg and five other family members were injured. Gregg sued the Air Force and was awarded $54,000 in damages, which is almost $500,000 in today's money.
一架波音B-47E-LM喷气式轰炸机离开佐治亚州萨凡纳的亨特空军基地，飞往英格兰。这是"阵雪行动"的一部分，而整个行动要求轰炸机飞到英格兰模拟发射导弹以测试其精确度。这架波音带有一枚马克6核弹。与不列颠哥伦比亚的事故相似，导弹没有内核，但仍然有几千磅炸药。这一次责任全在机长。他检查核弹时，竟然碰到了紧急发射保险锁。导弹从架子上掉下去，正好穿透轰炸机机门，落到4500米下的地面。炸弹落在沃尔特·格雷格家屋顶上，随后爆炸。幸运的是，除了格雷格和他的5位家人，没有其他人受伤。格雷格起诉空军，得到54000美元赔偿，相当于现在的500000美元。
8.Minot, North Dakota,2007
8.北达科他州迈诺特，2007
Don't think that fumbles with nuclear weapons are a thing of the past; the most recent such incident happened in 2007 at the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
不要以为核武器事故只发生在过去，最近一起发生在2007年北达科他州迈诺特空军基地。
The mission was supposed to be pretty simple—deliver a load of unarmed AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles to a weapons graveyard. A dozen of them were loaded onto a B-52, six on each side. The officer in charge came and gave a quick inspection with a passing glance at the missiles on the right side before signing off on the mission. If he bothered to look on the left side, he would have noticed something quite interesting—the six missiles were all still armed with nuclear warheads, each with the power of 10 Hiroshima bombs. This fun fact went unnoticed for the next 36 hours. During that time, the missiles flew across the country to Louisiana without any kind of safety protocols in place or any other procedure normally required when transporting nuclear weapons. In the end, things turned out fine, which is why this incident was never classified as a broken arrow. Rather, it's a "bent spear," an event involving nuclear weapons of significant concern without involving detonation. Even so, when word got out, the public was quite distressed to find out exactly how easily six incredibly dangerous nuclear weapons can get misplaced through simple error.
这项任务原本很简单——将大量没有弹药的AGM-129 ACM巡航导弹运送到武器试验场地。其中12枚在一架B-52运输机上面，两边各6枚。总指挥过来快速查看一番，示意飞机起飞前还扫视了右边的导弹。如果他够耐心，再看看左边，他就会注意到一件有趣的事——6枚导弹仍旧带有核弹头，每一枚的威力都10倍于广岛的"小男孩"。在接下来的36个小时里，这个问题一直没有被发觉。在导弹穿越美国到达路易斯安那上空期间，军方没有准备任何应急方案或者经过运输核武器需要的任何其他常规程序。最后的结果还好，这次事件也就不属于"断箭"。不如说它是"弯矛"——影响重大而没有引爆核武器的事件。虽是这样，当这个消息传出去之后，公众特别担忧：6枚如此危险的核武器竟然因为这么简单的错误就这么放错了位置!
7.Tybee Island, Georgia,1958
7.佐治亚州泰碧岛，1958
The year 1958 wasn't a brilliant year for the US military. This is the second of three broken arrow incidents that year, this time taking place in the waters off Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia.
对美国军队而言，1958年真不是一个好年份。这是这一年3起核事件中的第二起，发生在泰碧岛（在萨凡纳附近）水域。
A 3,500-kilogram (7,600 lb) Mark 15 nuclear bomb was aboard a B-47 bomber engaged in standard practice exercises. What was not so standard was an accidental collision with an F-86 fighter plane, significantly damaging the B-47's wing. The bomber was barely airborne, so the crew jettisoned the bomb in preparation for an emergency landing. The bomb was jettisoned over the waters of the Savannah River. To the crew's surprise, they never heard an explosion. The pilot guided the bomber safely to the nearest air force base and even received a Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions. However, there was still one question left unanswered—where was the giant nuclear bomb?That's a question still unanswered today. The bomb was never found. Even now, over 55 years after the accident, people are still looking for it. Experts agree that the bomb ended up somewhere at the bottom of the Wassaw Sound, where it should still be today, buried under several feet of silt.
一枚重3500公斤（7600磅）的马克15核弹被安放在一架B-47轰炸机上，这架轰炸机正要进行标准的实战演练。不那么达标的地方在于飞机竟然与一架F-86战斗机相撞，导致B-47机翼严重受损。飞机仍在空中，机组扔掉炸弹，准备紧急着陆。炸弹是在萨凡纳河水域上空投放的。让机组惊讶的是，他们没有听见爆炸的声音。飞行员带领飞机安全到达最近的军事基地，甚至因为这次表现而获得一枚杰出飞行十字勋章。但是，还有一个问题没有答案——那枚巨大的核弹在哪儿？这个问题至今无解。这枚炸弹从没找到。甚至55年后的今天，人们还在寻找。专家认为炸弹在海底某个地方爆炸了，残骸现在还在那儿，埋在几英尺的淤泥下。
6.地中海，1956
The military does have a tendency to lose a nuclear weapon every now and then without ever recovering it. However, in these cases, they at least have some idea of where the bombs ended up. That is not the case with this broken arrow. It is, without a doubt, the most mysterious incident of its kind.
军方总是偶尔遗失核武器，然后再也找不回来。但是，在这些事例中，他们至少大概知道炸弹落在何方。而这个事件的情况却非如此。毫无疑问，这是最离奇的事故了。
On March 10, 1956, a B-47 Stratojet took off from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida carrying capsules with nuclear weapon cores. It was headed to a then-undisclosed foreign military base, later revealed to be Ben Guerir Air Base in Morocco. During the flight, the bomber was supposed to undergo two aerial refueling sessions. The first one went off without a hitch. When the second tanker arrived to meet up with the B-47, the bomber was nowhere to be found.And it was never found again. It had disappeared without a trace over the Mediterranean Sea. The Royal Navy organized extensive searches assisted by French and Moroccan troops stationed in the area. The best they could come up with is a report that the plane went down somewhere near a coastal village in Algeria called Port Say. The plane and its cargo was eventually classified "lost at sea," and the three crew members were declared dead.
1956年3月10日，一架B-47喷气式轰炸机在佛罗里达州迈克迪尔空军基地起飞，机上载着装有核武器内核的弹药舱。飞机要飞往当时还未公开一个外国军事基地，后来披露是摩洛哥的本格里空军基地。在飞行途中，据说轰炸机在空中加了两次油。第一次顺利完成。当第二架加油机抵达与B-47碰面的位置时，B-47却不见了。这架飞机再也没有被找到过。他在地中海上空毫无痕迹地消失了。皇家海军组织力量展开广泛搜寻，还得到了这一区域内法国和摩洛哥驻军的帮助。他们得到的最好结果就是一份报告：飞机在靠近一个叫做塞湾的地方坠毁，在阿尔及利亚一个滨海村庄附近。飞机和机上的东西最后被认定"坠入海中"，3名机组成员被宣告死亡。
评论
打印
