Update: All eight crew members are dead, per Fox News.
Official statement from Edwards Air Force Base:
A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Edwards Air Force Base in California, the base said in a statement Monday.
“A United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashed shortly after takeoff on the Edwards airfield at 11:20 a.m.,” the base said in a post on Facebook.
“Emergency crews immediately responded to the scene and the situation is ongoing.”
It’s unclear if there were any injuries or what caused the crash.
The base did not provide any further details in its statement, adding that more information will be provided when it becomes available.
“Please join me in praying for the B-52 crew at Edwards Air Force Base and the entire Edwards community,” said Rep. Vince Fong (R-Calif.) in a post on X.
Video footage of the incident showed the smoldering wreckage of the plane at the base, which is located in both Kern and San Bernardino counties.
As Jack Phillips reports for The Epoch Times, the B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range bomber that was introduced in the 1950s as a central part of U.S. air power.
The planes are capable of carrying conventional and nuclear weapons, and they have been used in a range of U.S. military confrontations, most recently in the war with Iran.
The bomber usually has a crew of five, including a commander, pilot, radar navigator, navigator, and electronic warfare officer. It also can carry a payload of up to 70,000 pounds and has a range of 8,800 miles, the Air Force says.
The Air Force says it is expecting to operate B-52s until the year 2050.
Both the Air Force and NASA carry out test flights of new and experimental aircraft at the air base, which is located in the Mojave Desert, according to its website.
Earlier this month, NASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft flew faster than the speed of sound in a milestone event at Edwards Air Force Base, the space agency said.
The crash is one of several involving the U.S. military that have occurred in the past few weeks.
On May 17, two Navy EA-18G Growlers collided with one another in midair in an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, the military said.
Over the past weekend, a military plane crashed near Mount Rainier in Washington state during a training flight, local officials said.
Before the crash on Monday, the most recent fatal incident involving a B-52 occurred in 2008, when six Air Force members died when a bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean after taking off from a base in Guam. The plane was due to take part in a parade flyover.
10 Responses
The planes are pieces of shit just like the scumbags who fly them to k!ll people. Shove your endless wars up your asses, how’s that sound?
So if $Trillions are going to “War funds”, then why are these rusty pieces of junk still in service that are over 60 years old???
Perhaps a good chunk of the money is going into the pockets of the elite, namely the Trump and Kushner families!
More than perhaps, instead a certainty, you are a leftist noisemaking storyteller, here for the purpose of attacking Trump.
Earlier today, you the propagandist, a very bad one, said Trump got oil money for the mass jabbing which began AFTER Trump left office, a complete LIE.
Now you say that a plane program which has been in service for 71 years. and is intended to be in service for 24 more years, is in service because Trump and Kushner are getting kickbacks.
You are a LIAR, and will never be anything else.
Your vehicle is probably a rusty death trap on the roads, putting innocent people at risk. Folks like you should be locked up for good!
Strange? Day after peace deal? Good time to youtube:Modern Jews Are Not Israelites | Synagogue of Satan Series | Rich Tidwell Sermon
It’s good to be suspicious. As soon as I heard this I looked to see if Israeli military personnel have a presence at Edward’s. Sure enough, they have a significant presence there and are very involved in flight testing program of aircraft. Of course the plane that crashed was on a test flight. Just a coincidence I’m sure.
This should never have happened. These planes are irreplaceable.
Whatever happened the public will never know the truth.
We need to come-up with something that counters the cheap drones that any enemy can overwhelm us with. This is how we lost the Iran war (that shouldn’t have happened in the first place).
The last B-52 came off the line in 1962, so at a minimum this plane was 64 years old