A nuclear warhead tipped Titan II ballistic missle blew up in its silo in 1980 after a maintenance crewman dropped a wrench and punctured the tank causing fuel

A nuclear warhead tipped Titan II ballistic missle blew up in its silo in 1980 after a maintenance crewman dropped a wrench and punctured the tank causing fuel to leak out. The tank depressurised and the missile came close to collapsing because the tank could not support its weight. Eventually the fuel ignited and the whole stack went up. Fortunately the warhead didn't go off. The really chilling bit is that it easily could have. The story is told in the book "Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety" by Eric Schlosser. This should be required reading for all engineers, a textbook on how complex systems can go wrong. If the book does not scare the shit out of you regarding the apalling standards of nuclear warhead engineering then you may not have a pulse.