{"id":343,"date":"2026-06-16T17:24:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=343"},"modified":"2026-06-16T17:24:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:24:54","slug":"%f0%9f%9a%a8%f0%9f%98%a28-crew-members-dead-after-b-52-bomber-crashes-at-californias-edwards-air-force-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=343","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\ude228 crew members dead after B-52 bomber crashes at California\u2019s Edwards Air Force Base"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight crew members are dead in a B-52 bomber crash shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base, northeast of Los Angeles, on Monday morning, the base said.<\/em>\u00a0It is the deadliest crash involving a B-52 bomber since 1982. In that crash, nine crew members died in test training at the Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, The Associated Press reported at the time. The B-52 Stratofortress in Monday\u2019s crash was on a routine test mission that took off at 11:20 a.m. local time at the remote air base, officials said. It is now considered a recovery operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tragic and unsurvivable,\u201d Colonel James Hayes said at a news conference. Emergency crews responded immediately to the crash involving the bomber, which left a towering black plume in its wake, the base said. Teams are working to notify families about the deaths over the next several hours, Chief Master Sgt. Joshua T. Skarloken said. The crew was a mix of military officials, government civilians and government contractors, Skarloken said.<\/p>\n

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Boeing, the manufacturer of the plane, said two of its employees were on Monday\u2019s flight. \u201cWe are in contact with their families and are offering support,\u201d Boeing said in a statement. Secretary of the Air Force Troy E. Meink and House Speaker Mike Johnson both shared their condolences on social media about the lives lost.<\/p>\n

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Investigation and Base Operations<\/h2>\n

The B-52 bomber was performing a test supporting the radar modernization program, Air Force officials said. The base\u2019s runway was left with a large blackened scar on the sandy runway, as well as some residual smoke, but it was difficult to make out any distinct parts of the wreckage, video from CNN affiliate KCAL shows. The base has been reopened, though officials are standing down on operations through Tuesday, Hayes said.<\/p>\n

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Military officials will start investigating what happened, but the exact details won\u2019t be available to the public for around six months, Hayes said. Edwards Air Force Base is historically used as a testing site, not just for Air Force planes, but for other aircraft, helicopters, drones \u2013 and even space shuttles \u2013 because of its long runways \u201cIf it flies, it\u2019s tested at Edwards Air Force Base,\u201d said Richard Kolko, a retired US Navy commander and P-3 pilot. \u201cIt\u2019s got some of the best test pilots and best engineers out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Test flights typically go up with some of the most seasoned pilots and air crew available, and, depending on what is being tested, civilian engineers or manufacture personnel as well, Kolko said. The base also has a robust emergency response team for any accidents, he added. Now, officials will be tasked with securing the crash site, gathering any potential remains and evidence, pulling maintenance records and reviewing everything to determine what they can about the crash, Kolko said.<\/p>\n

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B-52 Aircraft Details<\/h2>\n

The B-52, the plane at the center of Monday\u2019s crash, is one of the Air Force\u2019s oldest aircraft, first entering service in 1955. The long-range heavy bomber, which typically carries a crew of five, can carry as much as 70,000 pounds of bombs and other munitions. The currently flown version, the B-52H, still plays a major role in the Air Force\u2019s arsenal, which included 76 of the aircraft before the crash. It was used in bombing missions during the current conflict between the US and Iran.<\/p>\n

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The B-52H can also carry nuclear bombs and nuclear-armed cruise missiles. Before Monday\u2019s crash, the most recent fatal accident involving the aircraft was in 2008, when six Air Force personnel were killed after their B-52 crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Guam while preparing for a parade flyover. The Boeing-made bomber has not been in production since 1962, though several life-extension initiatives have modernized the airframe and kept it flying.<\/p>\n

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The Air Force recently launched another B-52 upgrade initiative centered around designing new engines with a total expected price tag of $48.6 billion, according to Defense News. Because the aircraft is no longer in production, any replacements must be sourced from dismantled airframes stored at the so-called \u201cBoneyard\u201d at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, as was done after a non-fatal 2016 crash that destroyed a B-52H in Guam. This story has been updated with additional information. Davis Winkie\u2019s work at CNN is supported by a partnership between Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners (JFP). CNN retains full editorial control of the reporting. CNN\u2019s Michael Callahan contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight crew members are dead in a B-52 bomber crash shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base, northeast of Los Angeles, on Monday morning, the base said.\u00a0It is the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}