<p>The US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating a huge atomic bomb over North Carolina in 1961, according to a newly declassified document published by Britain's Guardian newspaper today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina on January 23, 1961 when the B-52 plane carrying them broke up in mid-air, according to the file.<br /><br />One of the bombs began to detonate -- a single switch was all that stopped it from doing so. The three other safety mechanisms designed to prevent an unintended detonation failed.<br /><br />The US government has acknowledged the accident before, but the 1969 document is the first confirmation of how close the United States came to nuclear catastrophe on that day.<br /><br />"It would have been bad news in spades," wrote its author, US government scientist Parker F Jones.<br /><br />The bomb was 260 times more powerful than the one that devastated Hiroshima in 1945, according to the Guardian.<br /><br />The accident happened at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.<br /><br />The declassified report was obtained by US investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under freedom of information legislation.<br /><br />"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," said Schlosser.<br />"We were told there was no possibility of these weapons accidentally detonating, yet here's one that very nearly did."<br /><br />Jones jokingly titled the report "Goldsboro Revisited, or: How I Learned To Mistrust the H-Bomb", a reference to Stanley Kubrick's classic 1964 film about nuclear armageddon, "Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb".</p>
<p>The US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating a huge atomic bomb over North Carolina in 1961, according to a newly declassified document published by Britain's Guardian newspaper today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina on January 23, 1961 when the B-52 plane carrying them broke up in mid-air, according to the file.<br /><br />One of the bombs began to detonate -- a single switch was all that stopped it from doing so. The three other safety mechanisms designed to prevent an unintended detonation failed.<br /><br />The US government has acknowledged the accident before, but the 1969 document is the first confirmation of how close the United States came to nuclear catastrophe on that day.<br /><br />"It would have been bad news in spades," wrote its author, US government scientist Parker F Jones.<br /><br />The bomb was 260 times more powerful than the one that devastated Hiroshima in 1945, according to the Guardian.<br /><br />The accident happened at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.<br /><br />The declassified report was obtained by US investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under freedom of information legislation.<br /><br />"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," said Schlosser.<br />"We were told there was no possibility of these weapons accidentally detonating, yet here's one that very nearly did."<br /><br />Jones jokingly titled the report "Goldsboro Revisited, or: How I Learned To Mistrust the H-Bomb", a reference to Stanley Kubrick's classic 1964 film about nuclear armageddon, "Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb".</p>