The Night America Nearly Nuked Itself | The Damascus Titan II Explosion

Описание: On September 18th, 1980, a routine maintenance job inside a Titan II missile silo in Damascus, Arkansas, turned into one of the most dangerous nuclear accidents in American history.

A single dropped tool punctured the missile’s fuel tank, triggering a catastrophic chain reaction that ended with a violent explosion powerful enough to launch the silo’s 740-ton steel door hundreds of feet into the air — and throw a live 9-megaton nuclear warhead into a nearby field.

This documentary reveals:
• How the Titan II fuel system became a ticking bomb
• The moment the missile’s first stage collapsed
• Why young airmen were sent into a toxic silo on a fatal mission
• How the W-53 nuclear warhead survived the explosion
• Why this accident nearly wiped out central Arkansas
• The efforts to hide the full truth from the public

The Damascus Titan II explosion remains one of the closest calls the United States ever had with nuclear catastrophe and a chilling reminder of how fragile Cold War nuclear safety really was.

#CIA #SovietUnion #HistoryDocumentary #Espionage #ColdWar #NuclearWar #NORAD #BMEWS #ColdWarHistory #Declassified #MilitaryDocumentary #SovietUnion #UnitedStates #NuclearCloseCalls #RadarSystem #MoonIncident