Leadup At around
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. One of the workers, Airman David P. Powell, had brought a
ratchet wrench – long weighing – into the silo instead of a
torque wrench, the latter having been newly mandated by Air Force regulations. Powell later claimed that he was already below ground in his safety suit when he realized he had brought the wrong wrench, so he chose to continue rather than turn back. 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. Lieutenant General
Lloyd R. 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.
Explosion in its
launch silo Early in the morning of September 19, the first two men to enter the silo complex, after the Titan II missile fuel tank had been leaking for nearly 6 hours, were a two-man team consisting of Senior Airmen John "Greg" Devlin and his partner, Rex Hukle. While they were instructed to enter the silo complex, the standard methods of entering the complex wouldn't work. 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 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 3-foot-long crowbar and the bolt cutters to break through the steel-framed portal door. Once inside, they encountered a locked, caged-in area, typically used to provide the top-secret codes for entry to the commander. They had to break through the locked door manually. After descending the stairwell approximately 35 feet, they encountered the first of two blast doors (Door #6), which is used to enter the blast lock area. This area housed the Vapor Detector Annunciator Panel (VDAP), which they were trying to access. Devlin and Hukle hooked up a manual, hydraulic pump to the locking pin cylinder, in hopes of retracting the pin for entry. Within minutes, they were running low on breathing air in their RFHCO (Rocket Fuel Handler Clothing Outfits) suits and were ordered to return topside. Devlin and Hukle had been relieved by Senior Airman David Lee Livingston and Sergeant Jeff K. Kennedy, who proceeded past the opened security gate and unlocked portal doors, arriving at blast door #6. Because their vapor detectors indicated an explosive atmosphere, the two were ordered to evacuate. The team was then ordered to reenter the silo to turn on an exhaust fan. Livingston reentered the silo to carry out the order and shortly thereafter, at about , the
hypergolic fuel exploded—likely due to arcing in the exhaust fan. The initial explosion catapulted the 743-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. The W53
thermonuclear warhead landed about from the launch complex's entry gate. Its safety features prevented any loss of radioactive material or nuclear detonation. As word of the explosion reached the American public, U.S. President
Jimmy Carter made a news broadcast reassuring the people of
Arkansas that there had been no leakage of radioactive material and that the situation was under control. Arkansas governor
Bill Clinton said Air Force officials told him in an official briefing that no nuclear explosion could have occurred inside the silo. At daybreak, the Air Force retrieved the warhead, which was returned to the
Pantex weapons assembly plant. The launch complex was never repaired. Pieces of debris were taken away from the surrounding the facility, and the site was buried under a mound of gravel, soil, and small concrete debris. The land is now under private ownership. The site was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places on February 18, 2000. Even after the cleanup, there was worry among the general public that the warhead could have detonated as a result of the explosion. In response, the authorities issued a statement that declared the chances of this occurring were next to impossible, as the W-53 had been fitted with numerous failsafes to ensure that no accidental detonation could ever occur. Kennedy, initially praised as a hero, later received an official letter of reprimand for his first entry into the complex, as it later transpired that he had disregarded an order to stay away. ==Popular culture==