It was mid-September 1980. At launch complex 374-7 near the small town of Damascus, Arkansas (southeastern USA), a routine check of the readiness of one of the Titan II rockets was to be carried out. These are liquid-propellant ballistic missiles, which were primarily intended to deter the Soviet Union from an attack, but also to be able to hit the enemy if necessary. The Americans produced 54 Titan II missiles and deployed them in underground silos in three states – Arkansas, Arizona and Kansas. The missiles could fly 15,000 miles. km and carried extremely deadly weapons – W53 nuclear warheads with a capacity of up to 9 megatons. It is one of the most powerful atomic weapons that the US has created, some 600 times more powerful than the Little Boy uranium bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
The Titan II rockets had to be ready to launch at all times, and they happened to be technically designed to wait for long periods of time without refueling. Unfortunately, they were also very problematic to maintain and dangerous for the technicians working on them. This is because of the design, which rested its weight on two tanks filled to the brim with liquid fuel and oxidizer. The former was not only extremely flammable, but also did not require an igniter – ignition was automatic when the fuel came into contact with liquid dinitrogen tetroxide from the adjacent tank. The contact of both liquids initiated the launch of the rocket, but could also lead to the explosion of such a set.
They forgot the correct key
On September 18, two technicians in the US service came to the site to perform a routine inspection – they were primarily to take pressure measurements in the tanks. A relatively simple task was made more difficult by a mistake. One of the technicians brought the wrong spanner with him to tighten the nut that secures the hose to the oxidant tank. The regulations of the American Air Force introduced shortly before required the use of torque wrenches during inspections, and not – as before – socket wrenches.
The gentlemen realized the mistake quite late, because already inside the silo, when they were dressed in protective suits required by law. It would cost them at least a couple of hours of driving back to base to get the correct wrench, so they decided to get to work using the tool they had with them – a hefty 11kg socket wrench. The decision turned out to be fatal. During the work, a socket weighing as much as 3.6 kg fell off the key and fell from 24 meters. The technician then stood on the metal catwalk that provided access to the rocket and failed to save the heavy element from falling.
Unfortunately, the heavy cap, before falling to the bottom of the silo, bounced off the platform supports and hit the rocket skin at the height of the fuel tank. The impact unsealed the tank, from which fuel began to leak, and the silo filled with toxic fumes faster and faster. Technicians quickly evacuated through a ten-meter-long tunnel leading to the (also underground) control center of the launch pad. Center employees raised the alarm and quickly got to the surface.
A mighty explosion shook the earth. Journalists fled in panic
only after a few hours, when the fuel tank at the bottom of the rocket was already partially empty. In the meantime, a group of several dozen journalists and police officers gathered around the facility, watching the situation from the nearby highway. The rescue operation was led by Lloyd R. Leavitt Jr., Deputy Chief of Strategic Air Command. His men feared that the empty tank might collapse and tip over, almost certainly exploding. Two technicians (David Lee Livingston and Jeff K. Kennedy) were sent to the silo to assess the situation, but when they detected a very high concentration of fuel vapor inside, they were ordered to evacuate immediately. As he was leaving, Livingston, at the command of his commanders, turned on the ventilation to suck the fumes from the inside of the silo. Kennedy was to wait for his friend at the entrance to the ground.
A moment later, at approx. At 3 a.m., there was a massive explosion that shook the entire complex. Livingston, who was just coming to the surface, was pinned down by debris. Despite rescue efforts, he died the same day in hospital. Soon after, he was posthumously promoted to staff sergeant. Kennedy was thrown more than 45 meters from the silo. He was badly mauled, broke his leg and was poisoned by toxic fumes, but miraculously escaped with his life. The explosion slightly injured 21 other soldiers and workers in the vicinity and caused great panic among journalists on the road. The civilians rushed to their cars in panic to get as far away from the scene as possible.
The entire launch complex was completely devastated, and the debris covered approx. 160 hectares of land around. The explosion inside the silo also acted as a launcher and blew the 740-ton lid over 60 meters into the air. shattered about 180 meters from the complex. The W53 nuclear warhead landed about 30 meters from the entrance gate to the launch center. Fortunately, the protections worked properly – there was no nuclear explosion or even damage to the dangerous warhead. It lay by the road almost untouched. The military recovered it, but it was not mounted on top of a Titan II rocket again.
It was the fan’s fault. The same one that was supposed to prevent the catastrophe
Later investigation showed that the explosion was caused by the ventilation system, which paradoxically was supposed to save the complex from the explosion. Most likely, there was a short circuit in one of the fans, which ignited the fuel vapors of the rocket. The costs of rebuilding the launch site were estimated at over $225 million, but the military limited itself to securing the site of the accident. The 20-year-old Titan II rockets were approaching their end, so there was no point in rebuilding the site. In the 1980s, there were cheaper and much safer solid-propellant Minuteman rockets that are non-toxic and cannot spill or evaporate.
Soon it was decided to abandon the Titan II rockets altogether. The last of these was removed from the silo in 1987, but one of Arizona’s launch complexes has been preserved as a visitor museum. Each of the 54 warheads on the Titan II rockets had enough power to destroy an entire city the size of Warsaw and kill millions of people. Fortunately, none of them were ever used in combat.
Source: Gazeta
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