Atomic Bomb North Carolina: 1961 Could Have Been Most Devastating Day Whipping Out N.C., Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City

Atomic Bomb North Carolina: One day in 1961 could have been the end of a half-dozen states that would have been nearly 260 times more powerful than the device that destroyed Hiroshima.

A report published by The Guardian said that a 1969 document, obtained by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, detailed the Jan. 23, 1961, B-52 crash near Goldsboro, North Carolina, that saw two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs break up in mid-air, with it almost being an atomic bomb at that.

If it wasn't for low voltage switch, the atomic bomb would have detonated in North Carolina, spreading to Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City, according to the report.

Parker Jones, a senior engineer in the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., wrote in the report that "one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe". The bombs "did not possess adequate safety for the airborne alert role in the B-52"

Of the eight crew members that day, three of them died in the crash.

The Guardian reported that Schlosser obtained the document while conducting research for a new book on the nuclear arms race, "Command and Control."

"The US government has consistently tried to withhold information from the American people in order to prevent questions being asked about our nuclear weapons policy," Schlosser told the newspaper. "We were told there was no possibility of these weapons accidentally detonating, yet here's one that very nearly did."