Albuquerque's 1950 Bomber Crash

By Joseph T. Page II

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 her 13-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 U.S., 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1467151513
• ISBN13: 9781467151511
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: History Press
• Length: 160 Pages