On November 19 , 1968 , a U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command B-52D Stratofortress with a full bomb load , broke up and caught fire after the plane aborted takeoff at Kadena Air Base , Okinawa before an Operation Arc Light bombing mission to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War . The pilot was able to keep the plane on the ground and bring the aircraft to a stop while preventing a much larger catastrophe . The aircraft came to rest near the edge of the Kadena 's perimeter , some 250 meters from the Chibana Ammunition Depot
broke up and caught fire
1968 Kadena Air Base B-52 crash
U.S. nuclear weapons in Japan