IT'S A BLAST

摘要

Disaster struck as James Gubash, a flight engineer on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, came off duty one night in May 1981. A reconnaissance aircraft coming in from a routine flight crashed onto the deck and caught fire. The heat detonated bombs on other aircraft, starting an inferno that spread like wildfire. "There was a chain reaction. Planes kept exploding. Ammo stores were detonating and ejection seats were going off. It was like being in the middle of a war zone," Gubash said, reporting the incident on US television's Military Memoirs. The firestorm raged for three days, and by the time it was over, 14 crew were dead and 45 were injured. It was only a matter of luck that the ship's reactors and the nuclear weapons on board survived unscathed.