Stanislav Petrov, who averted possible nuclear war, dies at 77 - BBC News — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00which feels nurtured it was completely
- 0:04unexpected as such things usually are
- 0:06the siren sounded very loudly and I just
- 0:10said there for a few seconds staring at
- 0:12the screen with word launch displayed in
- 0:15bold red letters I mean it later this
- 0:18siren went off again the second missile
- 0:21was launched than the third and the
- 0:24fourth and the fifth
- 0:25the computers changed their alerts from
- 0:28launch to missile strike there were no
- 0:31rules about how long we were allowed to
- 0:32think before we reported a strike but we
- 0:36knew that every second of delay took
- 0:39away valuable time that the Soviet
- 0:41Union's military and political
- 0:42leadership needed
- 0:43oh and then I made my decision
- 0:46I would not cross the computer I picked
- 0:49up the telephone handset spoke to my
- 0:52superiors and reported that the alarm
- 0:54was false but I myself was not sure
- 0:59until the very last moment I knew
- 1:02perfectly well that nobody would be able
- 1:04to correct my mistake if I had made one
- 1:07just a 50-50 yeah pretty malicious yeah
- 1:15Newton enterprise
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