Details are still coming in, but a B-52 bomber has crashed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
The base’s official Facebook and X pages have posted the following statement:
“A United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashed shortly after takeoff on the Edwards airfield at 11:20 a.m. Emergency crews immediately responded to the scene and the situation is ongoing. More information will be provided as it becomes available.”
From what we can see, the B-52 appears to have crashed on or at least very near the base’s main runway. Still images and video emerging now show a large fire with black smoke that can be seen from miles away.
News of the crash first emerged in a post on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook group. That post said the aircraft in question was tail number 061, but this is currently unconfirmed. While its status is unclear, this particular B-52 was the first to receive a new AN/APQ-188 active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar, which is one part of a much larger modernization effort for the entire fleet of these bombers.
How many individuals were on board the B-52 when it went down, and their fate, are currently unknown. However, the bomber ejection seat configuration could have presented complications for escape depending on how soon after takeoff the incident occurred. The B-52 has crew positions that eject downward.
Prior to this crash, the Air Force had 76 B-52s in service.
Though the two incidents are unrelated, this is also the second crash of a U.S. military aircraft in three days. A U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D Hornet assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323 (VMFA-323) went down near Mount Rainier in Washington State on June 13. The two individuals in that jet were able to eject safely. The Hornet did start a wildfire after hitting the ground.
Update: 4:00 PM ET –
Fox News has now shared a video it says is of the aftermath of the crash, which shows a very large scorched area along the side of one of the runways at Edwards. There is no readily discernible wreckage, pointing to a total loss of the aircraft.
Update: 4:18 PM ET –
Edwards Air Force Base has shared a new update as of 12:48 PM PDT via its social media accounts. The full statement reads:
“The airfield has been closed, and all inbound aircraft are being diverted. All non-commercial visitor passes have been suspended until further notice to allow the installation to focus entirely on emergency response operations.”
Update: 6:43 PM ET –
The 412th Test Wing Public Affairs Office has now issued a brief press release, which is as follows:
“An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress carrying eight people on a routine test mission crashed today shortly after take-off at 11:20 a.m. (PDT). Initial indications are that the crash was not survivable. Emergency response personnel are on scene, and officials are working to account for all personnel.”
“The crash is currently under investigation.”
Ten is the maximum number of people that can ride about a B-52 at one time, with four jump seats in addition to the available crew stations. Eight died in the crash. This makes it the biggest loss we know of at Edwards since a fatal crash of a B-50D bomber with eight individuals on board near the base in 1951.
UPDATE: 7:41 PM EDT –
Speaking at a press conference after the crash, Air Force Col. James Hayes, Deputy Commander at 412th Test Wing, Edwards Air Force Base, offered some additional details.
- “After reviewing the footage of the crash, it was deemed that this was an unrecoverable crash and unsurvivable. At that point, we went into the notification process.”
- “At this point, we don’t have any indication as to what the cause was of this.” The answers might not be known for upwards of six months after several investigations.
- The B-52 had “a mixed crew of military, government civilians, and government contractors supporting this test mission.”
- The base is terminating operations tomorrow “mainly because of the runway itself, and we’ll eventually get back to full operations and execute…but at this point, yes, we are standing down operations tomorrow.”
UPDATE: 4AM EDT—
Boeing has put out a statement mourning the loss of the crew, two of which were its employees.
*Author’s note: We changed the maximum crew to ten after a past bomber pilot informed us that the B-52 can hold this many people, not eight as we understood it to be.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com
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