page_title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion
section_title: Leadup to the incident
hierarchical_section_title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion / Incident / Leadup to the incident
caption_attribution_description: English: Titan II Strategic Missile (SM) sites of 373rd &amp; 374th SMS(quadrons), commanded by 308th SMW(ing), 1963–1987
context_page_description: The Damascus Titan missile explosion was a 1980 U.S. Broken Arrow incident involving a Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. The incident occurred on September 18–19, 1980, at Missile Complex 374-7 in rural Arkansas when a U.S. Air Force LGM-25C Titan II ICBM loaded with a 9 megaton W-53 Nuclear Warhead had a liquid fuel explosion inside its silo. Launch Complex 374-7 was located in Bradley Township, Van Buren County farmland just 3.3 miles NNE of Damascus, and approximately fifty miles north of Little Rock.
  The incident began with a fuel leak at 6:30 p.m. on September 18, and culminated with the explosion at around 3:00 a.m. on September 19.
  The Strategic Air Command facility of Little Rock Air Force Base was one of eighteen silos in the command of the 308th Strategic Missile Wing, specifically one of the nine silos within its 374th Strategic Missile Squadron, at the time of the explosion.
context_section_description: At around 6:30 p.m. CDT on Thursday, September 18, 1980, two airmen from a Propellant Transfer System (PTS) team were checking the pressure on the oxidizer tank of a USAF Titan II missile at Little Rock AFB's Launch Complex 374-7. Due to time constraints when going into the silo, a ratchet – 3 ft (0.9 m) long weighing 25 lb (11 kg) – was taken instead of the newly mandated torque wrench. The 8 lb (3.6 kg) socket for the oxidizer tank fell off the ratchet and dropped approximately 80 feet (24 m) before bouncing off a thrust mount and piercing the missile's skin over the first-stage fuel tank, causing it to leak a cloud of its aerozine 50 fuel.
  Aerozine 50 is hypergolic with the Titan II's oxidizer, dinitrogen tetroxide; i.e., they spontaneously ignite upon contact with each other. The nitrogen tetroxide is kept in a second tank in the rocket's first-stage, directly above the fuel tank and below the second-stage and its 9-megaton W-53 nuclear warhead.
  Eventually, the missile combat crew and the PTS team evacuated the launch control center, while military and civilian response teams arrived to tackle the hazardous situation. There was concern for the possible collapse of the now empty first-stage fuel tank, which could cause the rest of the 8-story missile to fall and rupture, allowing the oxidizer to contact the fuel already in the silo.
caption: Strategic Missile (SM) sites of 373rd & 374th Strategic Missile Squadrons, reporting to the 308th Strategic Missile Wing.
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