Eight people were killed when a B-52 crashed after takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base during a routine test mission, officials said.
Eight people were killed Monday when a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, military officials said.
The aircraft went down around 11:20 a.m. local time during a routine test mission and caught fire on the base, sending a plume of black smoke over the Mojave Desert. Officials said everyone aboard died.
The crash occurred at one of the Air Force’s most important test and development hubs, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. The cause has not been determined, and officials said the investigation could take months to complete.
Col. James Hayes, the deputy commander at Edwards, said the aircraft was carrying a mixed crew of uniformed military personnel, government civilians and contractors. Two Boeing employees were among those on board, the company confirmed.
“We lost eight great Americans,” Hayes said at an afternoon briefing, adding that officials were working to notify families before the victims’ names are released.
The B-52 had been supporting the base’s radar modernization program, officials said. After reviewing initial footage, Hayes said the crash was determined to be unrecoverable and unsurvivable. Aerial footage showed a burned area near a runway with emergency vehicles on scene.
Operations at the base were temporarily grounded after the crash. Inbound aircraft were diverted, and non-commercial visitor passes were suspended while emergency crews responded. The airfield had reopened by late afternoon, CBC reported, while emergency operations continued.
Officials gave no immediate explanation for why the bomber crashed so soon after takeoff. Accounts of the briefing described an initial investigative process that could take up to 30 days, with fuller cause analysis potentially stretching for more than six months.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said he was deeply saddened by the deaths and honored the work of “Airmen, civilians, and contractors” who support the service’s mission.
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range bomber that entered service in the 1950s and is designed to carry conventional and nuclear weapons. It has remained a central part of U.S. air power for decades, and Edwards has long been associated with military aviation testing, including the site where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947.
The next major updates are expected to come from victim notifications and the formal investigation into the crash.
Comments (0)