Broken Arrow | 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash

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On 21 January 1968, an aircraft accident (sometimes known as the Thule affair or Thule accident ) involving a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 bomber occurred near Thule Air Base in the Danish territory of Greenland. The aircraft was carrying four B28FI thermonuclear bombs on a Cold War "Chrome Dome" alert mission over Baffin Bay when a cabin fire forced the crew to abandon the aircraft before they could carry out an emergency landing at Thule Air Base. Six crew members ejected safely, but one who did not have an ejection seat was killed while trying to bail out. The bomber crashed onto sea ice in North Star Bay, Greenland, causing the conventional explosives aboard to detonate and the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse, which resulted in radioactive contamination.

Music: When The Lights Came On
Artist: Kai Engel
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[jonham]

I was in teletype maintenance in the 1983rd Comm Squadron at Thule that January. I felt the shock of the crash before I went on shift at the comm center. All of us in the barracks ran down the latrine, which faced the bay, to try to see what was up. We saw a ball of flame and we figured a fuel dump had exploded. After my shift my NCOIC told us they wanted volunteers to go on the ice and build pre-fab huts for the SAC guys who were coming in to clean it up so myself and another guy in teletype volunteered. We were the first group ferried out onto the bay via rescue helicopter. I spent 18 hours building huts and putting kerosene heaters in them. When I ended my shift out there they walked us through a mobile medical truck and checked us with Geiger counters. My mukluks, and those of the other guys, too, made it click so they took them and gave us new ones. They drove us back to base and I slept for 24 hours straight. Amazing how much it takes out of you working with hammers in 40-below temps. That was my brush with Cold War history.

[TheAdx]

I work building Aircraft as an apprentice. I watch your content every Friday morning before work, its not only informal and entertaining(often sad) but a great reminder of why every step I take in building my planes I must hold a great responsibility to ensure that plane is built right and every person on board will make it safely to the ground.
Thank you Allec!

[annndukumutua]

Let's appreciate Joshua's work

[georgeschryer]

My crew was on alert at Seymour Johnson when this occurred. All crews on alert were required to demonstrate their familiarity with their survival gear by being blindfolded and having heavy duty socks on their hands go through a seat pack and identify each item in the pack. This was because of the difficulty of the crew of that aircraft to deal with their situation upon landing in the cold and snow after their ejection.
I wish to add my compliments for such a professional looking video.
George Schryer B-52 Gunner

[epwadventures]

imagine that interview. "So what exactly did you do when you got on the plane?"

"Nothing. Just tucked away a few cushions I brought on board to make the flight a little more comfortable."

"...Where did you stow them...?"

"...Oh, crap..."

[MattsAviationChannel]

What a terrible accident. Cushions on the heating vent... holy moly that is crazy! Thanks for your good work Allec.

[Trentrick_Lamar]

I was looking up this incident to read more about it because my friend's grandfather was part of the cleanup crew involved. Two really cool things about their experience were that the Inuq taught them how to make igloos for survival because they were out working for so long in freezing temperatures and taught them that if their eyes ever ended up freezing shut for any reason they could just cup their hands over their face and breathe.

[petenrita]

This has to be one of the most impressive YouTube channels.

[josemoreno]

I remember reading about this when I was in the U.S. Air Force back in the 1980's. Good video. I have a better understanding now about what happen. Thanks.

[SpaceCadet]

Nicely done young man. Most young people today do not understand what it was like growing up during The Cold War era. The movies such as Threads (UK) The Day After (USA) showed what if but they never fully showed the underlying unease that every day brought.

[bajabill]

Allec:

Thank you for all the passionate effort your work!

[WendyKS]

Kudos to Allec for all his constant hard work in bringing these outstanding videos to us to enjoy and please know how much they are appreciated.

[judithbuchanan]

Allec....I’m in AWE of your work, editing etc. You are amazing🙌🏽👍🏽👌🏽

[idolhanz]

As this happened in Jan 1968, 6000 miles away in Istanbul, Turkey, I lay dying in my hotel room. I remember reading about this. Thank God I survived the surgery and lived! I was in Portugal when Palomares happened. Survived an Air Force flying career too 1979-2003.

[kimberlymiller]

I love the red sky that's been in several videos lately. It makes it even more eerie!

[michaelandcolinspop]

Nice work putting the turbojet engines on your model instead of the H-model’s turbofans. Good attention to detail. Another fine video, Allec.

[baraxor]

The Broken Arrow incidents associated with the airborne alert force were terrible publicity, but it was the cost of the war in Vietnam that was an even bigger factor in its termination; even in 1968 the fuel costs to the Air Force were staggering, and even had no crashes occurred the force would have been grounded with the oil crisis of 1973.

[dangarrison]

On Dec 16 ( Thursday) 1982 my buddy and i were contemplating cutting class because we only had one more day until christmas break. His house was at the end of a country road that dead ended into a field about a 1/4 mile away. It felt like the world ended, the house shook a d there was a loud explosion. A SAC B-52 doing MITO exercises started to overtake the plane ahead of him( he was using water injection) the pilot pulled back on the throttles and stalled. The olane crashed into the feild near my friends house.

[theMoerster]

You're over the Arctic at night, have a fire in your plane, can't read the instruments due to smoke in the cockpit and just ran out of fire extinguishers when... "the situation worsens". Ah,

[omega]

Another great episode. I had never heard of this one. Thanks for all you do.