Eight presumed dead after B-52 bomber crashes at California air force base | California
Eight people are presumed dead when a B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff from a U.S. air base in California’s Mojave Desert on Monday morning, officials said.
“An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft carrying eight people on a routine test mission crashed shortly after takeoff at 11:20 a.m. today,” Edwards Air Force Base said in a statement Monday afternoon. “Initial indications are that the accident was uninhabitable. Emergency response personnel are at the scene and authorities are trying to inform all personnel.”
The dead included military members, government employees and civilian contractors, according to James Hayes, deputy commander of Edwards Air Force Base. Authorities do not plan to release the names of those killed in the crash until their relatives are notified, officials said.
“Our thoughts and prayers at this time are with the families of those who lost loved ones,” Hayes said at a news conference.
In aerial images, it was seen that almost nothing remained of the plane. Black smoke billowed from a vast expanse of charred desert at Edwards Air Force Base near what appeared to be a runway where emergency vehicles were stationed nearby. The military did not say whether the bomber was armed.
Typically manning five people, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range bomber that entered service in 1955. Designed to carry both conventional and nuclear weapons, this aircraft has been used in various conflicts, from the Vietnam war to recent operations in the Middle East.
According to ABC News 7, the plane was flying a test mission as part of a program to modernize its radar from analog to digital. The program aims to keep planes like the crashed plane in service until 2050, or about a century of total use.
Authorities said they could not provide detailed information about how the accident occurred. Hayes said officials have begun gathering information for a safety investigation, which will then be presented to the crash investigation board, which will determine how much of the findings will be made public. The process can take up to six months.
The airport remained closed Monday afternoon and all incoming planes were being diverted. Officials said in a statement that non-commercial visitor passes to the base were suspended “so that the installation can focus entirely on emergency response operations.”
Edwards, the vast desert base where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound in 1947, is about 100 miles (161 km) north of Los Angeles.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti says he suspects there was some sort of flight control malfunction when the B-52 crashed so quickly after takeoff without going too high or far. But it’s too early to tell what’s causing the control problem.
After maintenance, he said, controls may have been adjusted incorrectly, or there may have been a major engine problem, or a piece of equipment under test may have failed.
“I definitely think it’s a controllability issue. I’m not sure if it’s related to an engine failure, a flight control failure or a new tester failure,” said Guzzetti, who investigates crashes for the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Although the air force has been flying B-52 bombers for more than 70 years, in-flight testing of new equipment can present new challenges.
“Flight testing is always riskier than normal operations, so you have to have specially trained test pilots and have other safety protocols as well,” Guzzetti said.
