Diver Sean Smyrichinsky told the Vancouver Sun that he spotted something unusual off Pitt Island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago, describing the find to his friends as a “UFO.”
(AirForceTimes)- A couple of days later, Smyrichinsky recalled the story to some fisherman. From the Sun:
“Nobody had ever seen it before or heard of it, [because] nobody ever dives there,” he said. “Then some old-timer said ‘Oh, you might have found that bomb.’”
“That bomb” was a nuclear device that was dumped or exploded off the B.C. coast on Feb. 13, 1950, when an American B-36 bomber crashed while en route from Alaska to Texas. It was packed with lead — not plutonium — and TNT.
The crew ditched the B-36 after ice built up on the plane’s wings and three of its six engines caught fire.
The bomber’s mission included a simulated drop on San Francisco using a dummy version of the Mark IV bomb, which is similar to the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
They dumped the bomb before ditching because, packed with explosives, it still could’ve caused major damage on impact.
Five members of the plane’s crew died. Another 12 were rescued after parachuting onto Princess Royal Island.