For 50 Years, Nuclear Bomb Lost in Watery Grave.
On Feb. 5, 1958, a B-47 bomber dropped a 7,000-pound nuclear bomb into the waters off Tybee Island, Ga., after it collided with another Air ***** jet.
Fifty years later, the bomb — which has unknown quantities of radioactive material — has never been found. And while the Air ***** says the bomb, if left undisturbed, poses no threat to the area, determined bomb hunters and area residents aren't so sure.
The bomb found its hidden resting place when the B-47 pilot, Air ***** Col. Howard Richardson, dropped it into the water after an F-86 fighter jet accidentally collided with him during a training mission. The fighter jet's pilot, Lt. Clarence Stewart, didn't see Richardson's plane on his radar; Stewart descended directly onto Richardson's aircraft. The impact ripped the left wing off the F-86 and heavily damaged the fuel tanks of the B-47.
