It would really only be comparable if they nuked north Carolina then tried to cover it up.
It’s not shocking that the military keeps classified that sort of thing, they’d have been hard pressed to keep an actual nuclear detonation classified/hidden 🤷♂️
Tbh the bomb exploding would be worse because you’d have the kinetic blast and death from that PLUS fallout (though on the east coast that fallout would likely be headed to Europe)
That said … the bomb not detonating because the switch that is designed to arm it was not armed is how it works.
To be clear the failsafes barely did.
Of the steps in this diagram the only one that prevented a nuclear detonation of the first bomb was the arming switch. In the swiss cheese model of accidents, out of 17 layers of protection, 16 failed. The safety mechanism that succeeded in this case had a history of failing because nuts in the plane could fall down and short the switch, arming the bomb unintentionally in flight.
The pilots who bailed out were both arrested by base MPs for ‘stealing parachutes’ while trying to get to the base and warn about the unsafe condition of the crash site. It probably didn’t help that the first pilot to make it to base was black in NC in the 60s.
ickplant
prettybunnys