Cold War B-52 fire over remote Greenland base raises nuclear safety concerns
A U.S. B-52 bomber carrying four thermonuclear weapons experienced a fire while on patrol near Thule, Greenland, forcing the crew to abandon the mission far from the base.
In the height of the Cold War, the United States established a covert airfield at Thule, Greenland, after moving about 500 Inuit residents from Qaanaaq. The base supported round-the-clock patrols by B-52 Stratofortress bombers carrying four B28FI thermonuclear bombs. On one such sortie, a heating-system failure ignited padding placed over an air vent, producing a fire that quickly filled the cockpit with smoke and rendered the flight instruments unreadable.
Extinguishers were exhausted, and the crew could not control the blaze. The aircraft was approximately 140 kilometres from Thule when the emergency occurred, a distance that precluded any viable emergency landing.
Why it matters
The incident highlights the risks of operating nuclear-armed aircraft in remote, harsh environments.
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