1959 — Oct 15, USAF KC-135A tanker collision, USAF B52F bomber, ~Leitchfield, KY– 8

–8 Aviation Safety Network. USAF KC-135 tanker collision, USAF B52, Leitchfield, KY, 10-15-1959.
–8 UPI. “Disaster Teams Discover Nuclear Bombs…in Plane Wreckage.” Billings Gazette, MT. 10-17-1959, p.1.

Narrative Information

Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database:
“Date: Thursday 15 October 1959
“Time: 19:45
“Type: Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker
“Operator: United State Air Force – USAF
“Registration: 57-1513
“MSN: 17584/ 193
….
“Crew: Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
“Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0
“Total: Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
“Collision casualties: Fatalities: 4 [B-52-F Stratofortress 57-0036; four others safely bailed out.]
….
“Location: Leitchfield, KY (USA)
“Phase: En route (ENR)
“Nature: Military
“Departure airport: Columbus AFB, MS…
“Destination airport: Columbus AFB, MS…
“Narrative: The Boeing Stratotanker collided in mid-air with a USAF Boeing B-52F
Stratofortress (57-0036), which was carrying two nuclear bombs. The
bomber was being refueled at FL320. Both aircraft crashed.”

Newspapers

Oct 16, UPI: “Hardinsburg, Ky. (UPI) – An eight-jet B-52 bomber carrying a nuclear weapon collided with a KC-135 Air Force tanker while refueling in flight Thursday night and crashed in flames in the Rough River dam area south of here. An Air Force spokesman said there was no danger of an atomic explosion. The Defense Department said that four men were known to have survived of the 10 or 12 believed to be aboard.

“The base public information office at the Columbus, Miss., Air Force base said: ‘There is no danger of atomic explosion. It the interests of public safety visitors have been asked to stay out of the area. There is no need for evacuation.’

“The wrecked planes, both stationed at Columbus Air Force Base, were found about four miles apart in rugged hill country about 20 miles south of here.

“The base official said it was the first crash of its kind since the Strategic Air Command began its round-the-clock refueling program nine years ago. A defense Department spokesman in Washington said each plane normally carries a crew of five or six.

“The base spokesman said technical assistant groups from nearby Goodman Air Force Base, Kentucky, and SAC headquarters were on the way to the crash scene.

“State police and officers from several counties continued the search for other crewmen who might possibly have escaped. Ambulances and firefighting units from the towns of Hardinsburg and Leitchfield, Ky., were rushed to the scene. Reports of the explosion came from as far away as the Louisville area, 75 miles to the east. The area over which the plane exploded is one of rocky, heavily wooded hills….” (UPI. “Nuclear-Loaded Jet in Mid-Air Collision.” Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, TX.. 10-16-1959, p. 1.)

Oct 17, UPI: “Hardinsburg, Ky. (UPI) – Air Force disaster teams using Geiger counters Friday found two nuclear bombs intact in the wreckage of a B-52 jet bomber which collided with its jet tanker last night, killing eight of the 12 crewmen aboard the planes. Four members of the eight-jet B-52’s crew bailed out and landed safely with only minor injuries. The bodies of four others and all four aboard the exploding tanker were found on the debris-strewn north central Kentucky hillsides 20 miles south of here where the two planes plunged to earth.

“Disaster teams from the Strategic Air Force headquarters of Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., Barksdale Air Force Base, La., and the plane’s home base at Columbus, Miss., found the bombs near a crater eight feet deep and 45 feet long, dug by the crashing bomber.

“At first it was announced that the bomber carried a nuclear weapon, but an official communique from Lt. Gen. John P. McConnell, 2nd Air Force Commander who was on the scene, twice used the word ‘weapons.’ Newsmen who had flown to the area in an Army helicopter saw two bulky devices, about six feet long, wrapped in blankets.

“One crewman’s body had been found and identified previously. General McConnell’s communique said the bodies of seven others who had been carried officially as ‘missing,’ had been located, but not individually identified….” (UPI. “Disaster Teams Discover Nuclear Bombs Intact in Plane Wreckage.” The Billings Gazette, MT. 10-17-1959, p. 1.)

Sources

Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database. USAF KC-135 Stratotanker collision, USAF B52F Stratofortress, Leitchfield, KY, 10-15-1959. Accessed 7-9-2023 at: https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19591015-1

UPI. “Disaster Teams Discover Nuclear Bombs Intact in Plane Wreckage.” The Billings Gazette, MT. 10-17-1959, p. 1. Accessed 7-9-2023 at:
https://newspaperarchive.com/billings-gazette-oct-17-1959-p-1/

UPI. “Nuclear-Loaded Jet in Mid-Air Collision.” Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, TX.. 10-16-1959, p. 1. Accessed 7-9-2023 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/valley-morning-star-oct-16-1959-p-1/