1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

The Damascus Titan missile explosion refers to an incident where the fuel in a nuclear armed missile exploded at missile launch facility Launch Complex 374-7 in Damascus, Arkansas, on September 18–19, 1980. The facility was part of the 374th Strategic Missile Squadron at the time of the explosion.

Incident

On the evening of the 18th, at about 6:30 p.m., an airman conducting maintenance on a USAF Titan-II missile at Little Rock Air Force Base's Launch Complex 374-7 in Southside (Van Buren County) just north of town, dropped a socket from a socket wrench, which fell about 80 feet (24 m) before hitting and piercing the skin on the rocket's first-stage fuel tank, causing it to leak. The area was evacuated. This socket wrench was approximately 3 feet (90 cm) long and around 25 pounds (11 kg). The socket was about 6 pounds (2.7 kg).

At about 3:00 a.m. on September 19, 1980, the hypergolic fuel exploded. The W53 warhead landed about 100 feet (30 m) from the launch complex's entry gate; its safety features operated correctly and prevented any loss of radioactive material. One Air Force airman, SrA David Livingston (posthumously promoted to Sergeant) was killed, others were seriously injured, and the launch complex was destroyed.[1] The former launch complex was decommissioned and disassembled, and now stands on private land.[2] The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Popular culture

A 1988 television movie, Disaster at Silo 7, is based on this event.[3]

In September 2013, Eric Schlosser published Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety.[4] It focused on the explosion, as well as other Broken Arrow incidents during the Cold War.[5][6] The New Yorker''s Louis Menand called it "excellent" and "hair-raising" and said that "Command and Control is how nonfiction should be written."[7] The book was also praised by science historian Steven Shapin in London Review of Books.[8] It was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for History.[9]

A documentary film titled Command and Control from director Robert Kenner, based on the book by Eric Schlosser, is set to be released in the fall of 2016.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Titan Missile Explosion". The Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
  2. ↑ Schlosser, Eric (2013). Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. Penguin Press. p. 484. ISBN 978-1-59420-227-8.
  3. ↑ Disaster At Silo 7 (1988) IMDB Page
  4. ↑ Greta Johnsen. "Five Books To Read This Fall".
  5. ↑ Walter Russell Mead (2013-09-12). "Atomic Gaffes: Command and Control by Eric Schlosser". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
  6. ↑ McKinley, James (2012-10-05). "Fast Food Nation Author Will Return With Book on Nuclear Weapons". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
  7. ↑ Menand, Louis (30 September 2013). "Nukes of Hazard". New Yorker. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  8. ↑ http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n02/steven-shapin/how-worried-should-we-be
  9. ↑ "The Pulitzer Prizes | Citation". Pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2014-05-12.

Coordinates: 35°24′51″N 92°23′50″W / 35.4141°N 92.3972°W / 35.4141; -92.3972

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