Operation Snow Flurry was an operation by the United States Air Force that consisted of B-47 Stratojet bombers flying to England to perform mock bomb drops . Data would be received on the ground from the planes , and this would later be used to track the accuracy of the mock drops . Aircraft involved would then fly to Strategic Air Command airfields in North Africa . In 1958 , a B-47 en route from Hunter Air Force Base accidentally dropped an inert Mark 6 nuclear bomb over Mars Bluff , South Carolina , although the explosion damaged nearby buildings . Live bombs were carried on board in case the planes had to activate for a wartime situation , but had their fissile nuclear cores removed and could not cause a nuclear detonation
accidentally dropped
1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident
Operation Snow Flurry