Osan Air Base the site of 1959 nuclear weapon-related accident, Japanese paper reports

Posted on : 2016-02-02 17:34 KST Modified on : 2016-02-02 17:34 KST
US documents and testimony confirm the accident, but also that no explosion or leaking of radioactive material occurred
A screen capture from the Asahi Shimbun’s website showing the location of Osan Air Base in South Korea
A screen capture from the Asahi Shimbun’s website showing the location of Osan Air Base in South Korea

A serious nuclear weapon-related accident occurred at a US Air Force base in Osan at the height of the Cold War in 1959, a recent report reveals.

Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Feb. 1 that official US documents and testimony from US personnel confirmed Osan Air Base to be the site of an accident on Jan. 18, 1959 - one of 32 nuclear weapon-related accidents officially reported by the US in 1980.

At the time of its report, the US stated that an explosion and fire had occurred after a fighter plane fuel tank ignited at a base in the Pacific region, but it did not specify the actual location.

Based on the record, the newspaper gathered official US government documents, including nuclear accident reports by the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations, along with testimony from an 80-year-old former pilot who belonged the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW), where the accident occurred. From its information, it determined that the unspecified “base in the Pacific region” was US Forces Korea’s (USFK) Osan Air Base.

At the time, the 8th TFW was associated with US Forces Japan’s (USFJ) Itazuke Air Base in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, and tasked mainly with planning and implementation of nuclear attacks.

The US documents found by the newspaper provide vivid details about the accident, which they describe as having occurred when the pilot of the aircraft in question pushed the ignition button, and a 200-gallon tank on the left wing ruptured and burst into flame. The accident resulted in partial melting of a nuclear weapon loaded on the aircraft and some scorching to its detonator, but no explosion or leaking of radioactive material occurred.

At the time of the accident, Osan Air Base had around ten US Air Force planes loaded with nuclear weapons, which were given repeated training for attacks against Vladivostok in what was then the Soviet Union, the article reported.

The discoveries allowed for the conclusion that USFK bases were on the front line of the US nuclear strategy and that USFJ and USFK were being run as a single unit at the time, the newspaper said.

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)