1965 Philippine Sea A-4 incident


The 1965 Philippine Sea A-4 crash was a Broken Arrow incident in which a United States Navy Douglas A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft of Attack Squadron 56 carrying a nuclear weapon fell into the sea off Japan from the aircraft carrier. The aircraft, pilot and weapon were never recovered.

The accident

On 5 December 1965, 31 days after Ticonderogas departure from U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay in the Philippines, the attack jet fell over the side during a training exercise while being rolled from the number 2 hangar bay to the number 2 elevator. The pilot, Lieutenant Douglas M. Webster; the aircraft, Douglas A-4E BuNo 151022 of VA-56; and the B43 nuclear bomb were never recovered from the depth. The accident was said to occur from Kikai Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.
Ticonderoga had aboard Carrier Air Wing Five during this cruise, with two squadrons of Skyhawks, the other being VA-144.

Revelation

It was not until 1989 that US DoD revealed the loss of the one-megaton H-bomb. The revelation inspired a diplomatic inquiry from Japan requesting details.