Albuquerque's 1950 Bomber Crash (Disaster)

Piece together the story of Albuquerque's 1950 Broken Arrow disaster from the wreckage of a Superfortress Bomber crash.

On April 11, 1950, at 9:38 p.m., a B-29 aircraft departed Kirtland Air Force Base. Approximately three minutes later, it crashed into the Manzano Foothills, killing everyone aboard.

The Roswell-based aircraft and its thirteen-member crew were ferrying a Mark IV atomic weapon from Kirtland AFB to a Strategic Air Command base in Texas. The incident marked the second nuclear weapons–related accident in the U.S. military, the first accident in the continental United States, and the first of two such accidents near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Author and military historian Joseph T. Page II recalls the lives lost in this tragic crash.

Joseph T. "Joe" Page II is a freelance writer and military historian. The history bug bit him early in life while growing up at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, the “Birthplace of America’s Missile and Space Activity.” After spending a decade in uniform, Joe and his family finally settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico.