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The Damascus Titan missile explosion (also called the Damascus accident) was a 1980 U.S. nuclear weapons incident involving a U.S.

Air Force LGM-25C Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at Missile Complex 374-7 in rural Arkansas. The incident began with a fuel leak at 6:30 p.m. CDT on September 18, and culminated with an explosion inside the missile silo at around 3:00 a.m. on September 19. The 9-megaton-of-TNT (38 PJ) W-53 nuclear warhead was ejected and landed a short distance away and no radioactive material was lost.

Launch Complex 374-7 was located in Bradley Township, Van Buren County farmland just 3.5 miles (5.6 km) NNE of Damascus and approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of Little Rock. The Strategic Air Command facility of Little Rock Air Force Base was one of eighteen silos in the command of the 308th Strategic Missile Wing (308th SMW), specifically one of the nine silos within its 374th Strategic Missile Squadron (374th SMS), at the time of the explosion.

CDT on Thursday, September 18, 1980, two airmen from a Propellant Transfer System (PTS) team were checking the pressure on the oxidizer tank of a USAF Titan II missile at Little Rock AFB's Launch Complex 374-7. Powell, had brought a ratchet wrench – 3 ft (0.9 m) long weighing 25 lb (11 kg) – into the silo instead of a torque wrench, the latter having been newly mandated by Air Force regulations. Aerozine 50 is hypergolic with the Titan II's oxidizer, dinitrogen tetroxide, such that they spontaneously ignite upon contact with each other. The nitrogen tetroxide is kept in a second tank in the rocket's first stage, directly above the fuel tank and below the second stage and its nine-megaton W-53 nuclear warhead. Eventually, the missile combat crew and the PTS team evacuated the launch control center, while military and civilian response teams arrived to tackle the hazardous situation. Leavitt Jr., the Vice Commander of the Strategic Air Command, commanded the effort to save the launch complex. There was concern for the possible collapse of the now-empty first-stage fuel tank, which could cause the rest of the 8-story missile to fall and rupture, allowing the oxidizer to contact the fuel already in the silo.

Early in the morning of September 19, after the Titan II missile fuel tank had been leaking for nearly 6 hours, the first men to enter the silo complex were Senior Airmen John "Greg" Devlin and his partner, Rex Hukle. Since the on-site command team had been evacuated, no one was inside to electronically unlock the entry gate or open the portal entry door for them. Devlin and Hukle were thus instructed to cut through the security fence next to the entry gate using 3-foot-long bolt cutters. Then they proceeded across the complex to the underground entry portal, descended 15 steps, and used a standard length crowbar and the bolt cutters to break through the steel-framed portal door. Devlin and Hukle had been relieved by Senior Airman David Lee Livingston and Sergeant Jeff K. The initial explosion catapulted the 743-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead.

As word of the explosion reached the American public, U.S. Arkansas governor Bill Clinton said Air Force officials told him in an official briefing that no nuclear explosion could have occurred inside the silo. Even after the cleanup, there was worry among the general public that the warhead could have detonated as a result of the explosion.

In September 2013, Eric Schlosser published a book titled Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. It focused on the explosion, as well as other broken arrow incidents during the Cold War. A documentary film titled Command and Control from director Robert Kenner, based on Schlosser's book, was released on January 10, 2017.

Quick Facts

• Air Force LGM-25C Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at Missile Complex 374-7 in rural Arkansas.
• CDT on September 18, and culminated with an explosion inside the missile silo at around 3:00 a.m. on September 19.
• CDT on Thursday, September 18, 1980, two airmen from a Propellant Transfer System (PTS) team were checking the pressure on the oxidizer tank of a USAF Titan II missile at Little Rock AFB's Launch Complex 374-7.
• Early in the morning of September 19, after the Titan II missile fuel tank had been leaking for nearly 6 hours, the first men to enter the silo complex were Senior Airmen John "Greg" Devlin and his partner, Rex Hukle.
• The 9-megaton-of-TNT (38 PJ) W-53 nuclear warhead was ejected and landed a short distance away and no radioactive material was lost.

Source material: Wikipedia - "1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.