The day a nuclear weapon fell into a South Carolina garden

History · Published 7 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 1958, a B-47 bomber accidentally jettisoned an unarmed nuclear weapon over Mars Bluff. While the high explosives detonated on impact, the true story lies in the narrow margin between a local accident and a much larger catastrophe.

On March 11, 1958, at 3:53 p.m. EST, a B-47E bomber departed from Hunter Air Force Base, Georgia, as part of a four-aircraft flight. While cruising at 15,000 feet, the aircraft accidentally released an unarmed nuclear weapon. The device impacted a sparsely populated area roughly 6.5 miles east of Florence, South Carolina, specifically landing in the garden of Walter Gregg. The aircraft was the third plane in its formation during the transit to an overseas destination.

The impact triggered the weapon's high explosive material, though no nuclear material capsule was present in the device at the time. The resulting explosion was powerful enough to virtually destroy the Gregg residence, carving a crater between 50 and 70 feet wide and 25 to 30 feet deep. The blast also damaged five other houses and a local church, causing minor injuries to Mr. Gregg and five of his family members. The explosion was caused by the detonation of the bomb's high explosive components upon hitting the ground.

In the aftermath, Air Force personnel spent several days cleaning up the site, recovering hundreds of fragments that local residents famously kept as souvenirs. While the residents of Mars Bluff underwent radiation monitoring for several months, the Air Force eventually awarded the Gregg family $54,000, five months after the incident. This 'Broken Arrow' event led to new protocols requiring crews to 'lock in' nuclear bombs to prevent accidental drops, though this change introduced new risks during potential aircraft crashes. The new 'lock in' procedure for crews was designed to mitigate the risk of such accidental jettisons, even if it heightened the danger of a nuclear release during a plane crash.

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