HARDINSBURG, Ky. — In 1959, a B-52 bomber aircraft carrying two nuclear weapons collided with another aircraft midair over Kentucky.
Sixty years to the day, a historical marker is being placed at the crash site in Hardinsburg.
On Oct. 15, 1959, the bomber collided with a tanker meant to refuel the B-52.
The collision caused both planes and both bombs to fall to Earth and luckily, neither detonated.
The crash killed four crew members of both planes, including a navigator on the bomber.
His niece told WHAS11 News, she grew up hearing stories about her uncle.
The two nuclear weapons were discovered in the crash, unarmed and only slightly damaged – not enough to cause radiation leakage.
The two aircrafts were flying a training mission.
These armed missions would allow aircraft to hit assigned Soviet targets if the U.S. was attacked during the Cold War.
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