Eight presumed dead after B 52 Bomber Plane Crashes at Edwards
An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress carrying eight people on a routine test mission crashed shortly after takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base on Monday morning, and officials said the crash was not survivable. The b 52 bomber plane crashes happened at 11:20 a.m. with military members, government employees and civilian contractors aboard.
Edwards Air Force Base said the eight people are presumed dead. James Hayes, the deputy commander at Edwards, said at a news conference, "Right now our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those that lost their loved ones".
Edwards Air Force Base response
The base said emergency response personnel were on scene and that officials were working to account for all personnel. It also said names would not be released until next of kin were notified. The airfield remained closed Monday afternoon, all inbound aircraft were being diverted, and non-commercial visitor passes were suspended so the installation could focus on emergency response operations.
That response left one clear operational shift for anyone trying to get on or off the base: inbound traffic was redirected, and visitor access stopped while the site stayed locked into recovery work.
Routine test mission
The aircraft was on a routine test mission tied to a program to modernize its radar from analog to digital, part of an effort to keep planes like it in service until 2050. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress entered service in 1955, and the military had not said whether the bomber was armed.
Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety expert, said, "I think it was definitely a controllability issue. Now, whether that was tied to an engine failure, a flight control failure or some new testing device failure, I’m not sure,". His comment points to the unresolved technical question investigators will have to sort out from wreckage, flight data and the test setup itself.
Safety review at Edwards
Officials said information would be collected for a safety review before submission to an accident investigation board, a process that could take up to six months. Edwards Air Force Base is about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, and the base's main task now is to secure the site, account for the crew and preserve evidence for the review.
For the families waiting on names and the crews keeping Edwards running, the immediate next step is the same: the base has shifted from flight operations to recovery, notification and investigation.
