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B-52 at Edwards AFB, California.
A Boeing B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff June 15 for a test flight at Edwards AFB, California, with eight crewmembers aboard.
The 412nd Test Wing in a statement said that “initial indications are that the crash was not survivable.”
Images circulating on social media show a large black plume of smoke rising from wreckage on the base’s flight line. The base is the site of U.S. Air Force flight testing, and unconfirmed reports have said that the tail number of this B-52 is the same as one that recently arrived for testing a major upgrade of the bomber’s radar.
The bomber, tail number 60-061, arrived in December after having the Raytheon APQ-188 radar installed as part of the broader B-52J upgrade package that will include new engines. The 419th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards is conducting the flight tests of the new system.
Seventy-six B-52s will receive the upgrade as part of the plan to keep the bombers flying through 2050.
Air Force Safety Center statistics show that the last time a B-52 was destroyed in a mishap occurred in 2016. There have been four total Class A mishaps involving the bomber in the past 10 years—incidents that caused more than $2.5 million in damage and/or the death or permanent injury of aircrews.
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