Lost ‘Nuke’ Bomb From The Cold War May Have Been Discovered Off The Coast Of British Columbia

A Mk4 Fat Man bomb that went missing during the Cold War, 1950.
A Mk4 Fat Man bomb that went missing during the Cold War, 1950.

Diver Sean Smyrichinsky thought at first he had discovered a UFO when he recently came across a strange object on the ocean bottom off British Columbia’s north coast.

He stumbled on something he said looked like a bagel cut in half and surrounded by bolts running into it.

Back on the surface, he told the crew he’d discovered a UFO.  After checking Google, Smyrichinsky found what he had actually discovered was a lost nuclear bomb dating back to the Cold War.  It was aboard a US Air Force B-36 intercontinental bomber which had crashed into the Pacific Ocean on February 13, 1950, during the Cold War between Russia and the United States.

The Royal Canadian Navy has dispatched a ship to possibly confirm the finding.

Historian Dirk Septer, in his book published early in 2016 recounted the incident. The bomber’s three engines caught fire, the bomber crashed after the crew, none injured, bailed out.  The destroyed aircraft, found accidentally four years later, came to rest in the province’s coastal mountains, three hours’ flying time in the opposite direction from where it was presumed to have crashed, CBC News reported.

Losing the bomb was the first instance of Broken Arrow, the code name used for mishaps involving nuclear weapons, Septer wrote, although it took the US years to admit it.

Major Steve Neta with the Canadian Armed Forces said the location corresponds to the crash site but records suggest the missing bomb was an imitation capsule, so there is little danger that it is a nuclear armament.

But they want to ensure it is the missing bomb, so a deeper investigation will be conducted.

Ian Harvey

Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE