The pilot in command ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft, which they did at 9,000 feet (2,700 m). The aircraft was immediately directed to return and land at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.Īs the aircraft descended through 10,000 feet (3,000 m) on its approach to the airfield, the pilots were no longer able to keep it in stable descent and lost control. However, when the B-52 reached its assigned position, the pilot reported that the leak had worsened and that 37,000 pounds (17,000 kg) of fuel had been lost in three minutes.
The aircraft was directed to assume a holding pattern off the coast until the majority of fuel was consumed. The refueling was aborted, and ground control was notified of the problem. During the hook-up, the tanker crew advised the B-52 aircraft commander, Major Walter Scott Tulloch (grandfather of actress Elizabeth Tulloch), that his aircraft had a fuel leak in the right wing. Around midnight on 23–24 January 1961, the bomber had a rendezvous with a tanker for aerial refueling.
The aircraft, a B-52G, was based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro. Information declassified in 2013 showed that one of the bombs came very close to detonating. Five crewmen successfully ejected or bailed out of the aircraft and landed safely another ejected, but did not survive the landing, and two died in the crash. The pilot in command, Walter Scott Tulloch, ordered the crew to eject at 9,000 feet (2,700 m). A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two 3–4- megaton Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process. The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash was an accident that occurred near Goldsboro, North Carolina, on 23 January 1961. Strategic Air Command, United States Air Force
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