Enewetak Atoll: T-33 drone crashes in Easy test
During the Easy detonation of Operation Greenhouse on April 21, 1951, at Enewetak Atoll, two T-33 drones crashed: one from shock wave damage, the other unresponsive to controls. The Air Force deemed unmanned samplers unreliable.
Background
Incident
On April 21, 1951, unmanned aircraft were again deployed during the Easy detonation of Operation Greenhouse at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Two T-33 drones were lost. One suffered severe damage from the shock wave, lost control, and crashed; the second did not respond to control signals and came down on the uninhabited island of Bogullua.
Witnesses and Evidence
M/Sgt Leland B. Taylor documented the incident in his history of Air Force atomic cloud sampling (US Special Weapons Center, January 1963, pp. 34–37). Further details come from Annie Jacobsen's book Area 51 (p. 225). The drones served as samplers in thermonuclear tests.
Significance
The US Air Force concluded from this that unmanned samplers were unreliable. The incident illustrates early difficulties in using drones in nuclear environments and contributed to the further development of such technology. In the context of UAP databases it is relevant as an early drone crash during testing.