Nanoose · 70-79, M
Bet Trump hasn't offered any condolences yet. Cheers!
KunsanVeteran · M
@Nanoose I don’t know about tRUMP personally, but the USAF certainly has.
I think I actually saw something on the order that even the drunkard at the Pentagon did…
I think I actually saw something on the order that even the drunkard at the Pentagon did…
KunsanVeteran · M
The Early Bird Brief carried this story:
“ 8 people killed in B-52 bomber crash at California base, officials confirm”
“ The eight individuals aboard the B-52 Stratofortress that crashed early Monday at Edwards Air Force Base, California, were killed, U.S. Air Force officials confirmed.
Gen. Ken Wilsbach, the Air Force chief of staff, said in a social media post Monday night that the force is grieving the loss of the individuals involved.
“It is with profound sadness that we mourn the loss of eight teammates today at Edwards AFB,” Wilsbach said in the post. “My thoughts are with the bomber and test communities during this difficult time.”
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink also lamented the deaths in a public statement, saying, “We mourn this loss and honor the service of our Airmen, civilians, and contractors who work every day to advance our mission.”
At 11:20 a.m. local time, or 2:20 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the bomber aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff for a routine test mission and burst into flames, according to service officials. Initial indications of the crash were that it was not survivable.
Emergency personnel responded immediately to the scene, and as of late Monday were still working to account for all personnel, alongside base officials.
At a Monday afternoon news conference, Air Force officials said they were still attempting to locate personnel, as well as the aircraft’s black box, which could be used in the investigation of the incident.
The individuals on board were not all service members, Edwards Deputy Commander Col. James Hayes said at the news conference. The eight were a mix of military personnel, government civilians and contractors.
The crashed B-52 was in support of the radar modernization program, Hayes said.
The cause of the incident is still unknown, and it is currently under investigation by an interim safety board. The investigation will be taken over by a Safety Investigation Board that will determine the cause and will be followed by an Accident Investigation Board that will determine what information can be revealed to the public and next of kin.
The Air Force has yet to reveal the identities of the eight individuals. Teams were in the process of notifying family members by Monday afternoon.”
“ 8 people killed in B-52 bomber crash at California base, officials confirm”
“ The eight individuals aboard the B-52 Stratofortress that crashed early Monday at Edwards Air Force Base, California, were killed, U.S. Air Force officials confirmed.
Gen. Ken Wilsbach, the Air Force chief of staff, said in a social media post Monday night that the force is grieving the loss of the individuals involved.
“It is with profound sadness that we mourn the loss of eight teammates today at Edwards AFB,” Wilsbach said in the post. “My thoughts are with the bomber and test communities during this difficult time.”
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink also lamented the deaths in a public statement, saying, “We mourn this loss and honor the service of our Airmen, civilians, and contractors who work every day to advance our mission.”
At 11:20 a.m. local time, or 2:20 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the bomber aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff for a routine test mission and burst into flames, according to service officials. Initial indications of the crash were that it was not survivable.
Emergency personnel responded immediately to the scene, and as of late Monday were still working to account for all personnel, alongside base officials.
At a Monday afternoon news conference, Air Force officials said they were still attempting to locate personnel, as well as the aircraft’s black box, which could be used in the investigation of the incident.
The individuals on board were not all service members, Edwards Deputy Commander Col. James Hayes said at the news conference. The eight were a mix of military personnel, government civilians and contractors.
The crashed B-52 was in support of the radar modernization program, Hayes said.
The cause of the incident is still unknown, and it is currently under investigation by an interim safety board. The investigation will be taken over by a Safety Investigation Board that will determine the cause and will be followed by an Accident Investigation Board that will determine what information can be revealed to the public and next of kin.
The Air Force has yet to reveal the identities of the eight individuals. Teams were in the process of notifying family members by Monday afternoon.”
KunsanVeteran · M
Here is the latest on the B-52 crash at Edwards AFB.
Per The Early Bird Briefing:
SHARE ARTICLE
“The B-52H Stratofortress that crashed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on June 15 was helping test a new advanced radar that is key to a sweeping modernization of the six-decade old bomber.
The Air Force has flown the B-52H since the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, and the service wants to keep it in service into the 2050s as a complement to the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber still in testing.
To keep the venerable bomber relevant for a modern fight, the Air Force launched a Radar Modernization Program to replace the legacy mechanical AN/APQ-166 radar with the active electronically scanned array AN/APQ-188 radar. Along with the modern radar, the service is also working on outfitting the B-52 with new Rolls-Royce engines, improved avionics, new digital cockpit displays, new weapons, better communication systems, and other changes. When the fleet is fully modified in the 2030s, the Stratofortress will be redesignated the B-52J.
Late in the morning of June 15 local time, a B-52 with eight crew members aboard—including service members, government civilians, and contractors supporting the test mission—crashed immediately after takeoff. The plane erupted into flames so severe they consumed practically the entire aircraft. Col. James Hayes, deputy commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards, called the event a “tragedy” in a June 15 news conference and said it was clear no one could have survived.
Top Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, posted to social media mourning the loss of the eight aboard the plane.
Boeing, which originally built the B-52 and is the lead contractor on integrating the new modernized systems, confirmed later that evening that two of its employees died in the crash.
Hayes said the B-52 had just taken off to conduct a test sortie and was supporting the Radar Modernization Program.
A B-52 loaded with the new APQ-188 radar—a system developed by Raytheon Technologies that can better navigate and target in all weather conditions—flew from Boeing’s San Antonio, Texas, facility to Edwards in December 2025.
A spokesperson at Edwards was not immediately able to confirm if the B-52 that arrived in December was the one that crashed. It is unclear what effect, if any, the B-52 crash might have on the radar program or the broader modernization effort.
But the radar program has had difficulties in recent years, including technical integration challenges and cost growth that triggered a law in spring 2025 requiring congressional notification, and delays that contributed to the B-52J’s projected initial operational capability slipping three years. The radar program’s troubles led the Air Force to scale back its scope, a Pentagon report said in March.
After the crash at Edwards, the Air Force now has 75 B-52s in its fleet.
The B-52 was originally only expected to fly for 20 years, but its status as a “bomb truck” capable of carrying massive amounts of ordnance—as much as 70,000 pounds—has kept the heavy bomber in regular use in recent decades. B-52s played critical roles in the Gulf War, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and against the Islamic State, and most recently as part of the Operation Epic Fury campaign against Iran.
It can also carry a vast array of different munitions, including precision-guided weapons, gravity bombs, cluster bombs, mines, cruise missiles, and nuclear weapons.
Keeping the B-52 airworthy has become more and more difficult as spare parts become harder to source and its aging systems break with increasing frequency. Many companies that originally built parts for the B-52 more than half a century ago are no longer in business, forcing the Air Force to track down alternative supply sources.
Those hunts aren’t always successful. With increasing frequency, B-52 maintainers must resort to “cannibalizing” spare parts from one bomber to fix up another.
The growing difficulty in keeping B-52 engines and other key systems functional was a major factor behind the Air Force’s decision to modernize it into the B-52J.
The Commercial Engine Replacement Program, or CERP, is the biggest component of the modernization effort, and will replace the bombers’ original Pratt & Whitney TF33 engines with Rolls-Royce’s new F130s.
So far, no new F130s have been mounted on B-52s, and the biggest work on the engine replacements is still to come.
The Air Force announced in May that the CERP program had passed its critical design review, which finalized the program’s design. Next, Boeing will modify the first two B-52s with new engines and other upgrades at its San Antonio facility, with the first arriving there later in 2026. Once upgrades on those two B-52s are done, the plan is to fly them to Edwards for extensive testing.
But while B-52s are old, they have a strong track record and a fair bit of life left in them, said Doug Birkey, executive director of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The B-52H spent most of its early years on nuclear alert while older B-52 variants were flown heavily during the Vietnam War, he said, meaning the Hs didn’t collect a large amount of flight hours during the Cold War.
Officials will likely rely on witness testimony and any possible video evidence as they investigate the Edwards crash, since it occurred near the base’s air traffic control tower, Birkey said. But the intensity of the fire means there will likely be not much physical evidence to analyze, he addedd.
The crash at Edwards was the first loss of a B-52 in a decade. In May 2016, a B-52 skidded off the runway during an aborted takeoff at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam after the crew suspected a bird strike when several engines lost thrust. That B-52’s crew safely evacuated, but the bomber caught fire and was a total loss.
Another B-52 crashed into the ocean northwest of Guam in 2008 after takeoff, killing all six crew members. The subsequent investigation concluded that the B-52’s rear stabilizers malfunctioned and led to the crash.
Those were the only two prior losses of a B-52 in the 21st century. In 1994, a B-52 crashed at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., causing a fiery explosion that killed all four aboard. During the flight, which was a practice run for an air show, the pilot passed low and slow above a runway, and then banked so sharply to the left one wing was vertical above the other. The plane stalled and plunged into the ground, creating a massive fireball.
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Per The Early Bird Briefing:
SHARE ARTICLE
“The B-52H Stratofortress that crashed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on June 15 was helping test a new advanced radar that is key to a sweeping modernization of the six-decade old bomber.
The Air Force has flown the B-52H since the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, and the service wants to keep it in service into the 2050s as a complement to the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber still in testing.
To keep the venerable bomber relevant for a modern fight, the Air Force launched a Radar Modernization Program to replace the legacy mechanical AN/APQ-166 radar with the active electronically scanned array AN/APQ-188 radar. Along with the modern radar, the service is also working on outfitting the B-52 with new Rolls-Royce engines, improved avionics, new digital cockpit displays, new weapons, better communication systems, and other changes. When the fleet is fully modified in the 2030s, the Stratofortress will be redesignated the B-52J.
Late in the morning of June 15 local time, a B-52 with eight crew members aboard—including service members, government civilians, and contractors supporting the test mission—crashed immediately after takeoff. The plane erupted into flames so severe they consumed practically the entire aircraft. Col. James Hayes, deputy commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards, called the event a “tragedy” in a June 15 news conference and said it was clear no one could have survived.
Top Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, posted to social media mourning the loss of the eight aboard the plane.
Boeing, which originally built the B-52 and is the lead contractor on integrating the new modernized systems, confirmed later that evening that two of its employees died in the crash.
Hayes said the B-52 had just taken off to conduct a test sortie and was supporting the Radar Modernization Program.
A B-52 loaded with the new APQ-188 radar—a system developed by Raytheon Technologies that can better navigate and target in all weather conditions—flew from Boeing’s San Antonio, Texas, facility to Edwards in December 2025.
A spokesperson at Edwards was not immediately able to confirm if the B-52 that arrived in December was the one that crashed. It is unclear what effect, if any, the B-52 crash might have on the radar program or the broader modernization effort.
But the radar program has had difficulties in recent years, including technical integration challenges and cost growth that triggered a law in spring 2025 requiring congressional notification, and delays that contributed to the B-52J’s projected initial operational capability slipping three years. The radar program’s troubles led the Air Force to scale back its scope, a Pentagon report said in March.
After the crash at Edwards, the Air Force now has 75 B-52s in its fleet.
The B-52 was originally only expected to fly for 20 years, but its status as a “bomb truck” capable of carrying massive amounts of ordnance—as much as 70,000 pounds—has kept the heavy bomber in regular use in recent decades. B-52s played critical roles in the Gulf War, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and against the Islamic State, and most recently as part of the Operation Epic Fury campaign against Iran.
It can also carry a vast array of different munitions, including precision-guided weapons, gravity bombs, cluster bombs, mines, cruise missiles, and nuclear weapons.
Keeping the B-52 airworthy has become more and more difficult as spare parts become harder to source and its aging systems break with increasing frequency. Many companies that originally built parts for the B-52 more than half a century ago are no longer in business, forcing the Air Force to track down alternative supply sources.
Those hunts aren’t always successful. With increasing frequency, B-52 maintainers must resort to “cannibalizing” spare parts from one bomber to fix up another.
The growing difficulty in keeping B-52 engines and other key systems functional was a major factor behind the Air Force’s decision to modernize it into the B-52J.
The Commercial Engine Replacement Program, or CERP, is the biggest component of the modernization effort, and will replace the bombers’ original Pratt & Whitney TF33 engines with Rolls-Royce’s new F130s.
So far, no new F130s have been mounted on B-52s, and the biggest work on the engine replacements is still to come.
The Air Force announced in May that the CERP program had passed its critical design review, which finalized the program’s design. Next, Boeing will modify the first two B-52s with new engines and other upgrades at its San Antonio facility, with the first arriving there later in 2026. Once upgrades on those two B-52s are done, the plan is to fly them to Edwards for extensive testing.
But while B-52s are old, they have a strong track record and a fair bit of life left in them, said Doug Birkey, executive director of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The B-52H spent most of its early years on nuclear alert while older B-52 variants were flown heavily during the Vietnam War, he said, meaning the Hs didn’t collect a large amount of flight hours during the Cold War.
Officials will likely rely on witness testimony and any possible video evidence as they investigate the Edwards crash, since it occurred near the base’s air traffic control tower, Birkey said. But the intensity of the fire means there will likely be not much physical evidence to analyze, he addedd.
The crash at Edwards was the first loss of a B-52 in a decade. In May 2016, a B-52 skidded off the runway during an aborted takeoff at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam after the crew suspected a bird strike when several engines lost thrust. That B-52’s crew safely evacuated, but the bomber caught fire and was a total loss.
Another B-52 crashed into the ocean northwest of Guam in 2008 after takeoff, killing all six crew members. The subsequent investigation concluded that the B-52’s rear stabilizers malfunctioned and led to the crash.
Those were the only two prior losses of a B-52 in the 21st century. In 1994, a B-52 crashed at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., causing a fiery explosion that killed all four aboard. During the flight, which was a practice run for an air show, the pilot passed low and slow above a runway, and then banked so sharply to the left one wing was vertical above the other. The plane stalled and plunged into the ground, creating a massive fireball.
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Subscribe to the Daily Report
Get your daily fix of Air & Space Force news delivered right to your inbox every day. There's no more reliable source for news about your Air & Space Forces.
Subscribe Today
Listen to the latest
Aerospace Advantage Podcast
from the Mitchell Institute
Allied Airpower Perspectives: Brig Gen Pierre Gaudillière, Commander of the French Air Combat Command
Listen Now
KunsanVeteran · M
What we know so far. The 8 people on board consisted of: a mixed crew of uniform military, government civilians and government contractors. Two were Boeing employees, the typical crew of a B-52 consists of five crew members. Their names were not immediately released as officials work to notify next of kin.
Colonel James Hayes said the B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff for a mission supporting the "Radar Modernization Program," which he described as a local test mission. Investigators are now digging through the debris field for the aircraft's black box and other equipment on board that could provide vital clues as to what went wrong.
"At this point, we don't have any indication as to what the cause was of this. We won't be able to release that information, and we don't have an availability to get that anytime soon," Hayes said.
Colonel James Hayes said the B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff for a mission supporting the "Radar Modernization Program," which he described as a local test mission. Investigators are now digging through the debris field for the aircraft's black box and other equipment on board that could provide vital clues as to what went wrong.
"At this point, we don't have any indication as to what the cause was of this. We won't be able to release that information, and we don't have an availability to get that anytime soon," Hayes said.
DallasCowboysFan · 61-69, M
I heard it was a training flight after maintenance.
If that is true, why would it have a load on it?
Do bombers ever carry anything, other than bombs?
It could be anything, the B-52 was introduced in 1955.
The things are older than I am .
If that is true, why would it have a load on it?
Do bombers ever carry anything, other than bombs?
It could be anything, the B-52 was introduced in 1955.
The things are older than I am .
KunsanVeteran · M
@DallasCowboysFan Training missions may or may not be loaded. At this point, unless they had some communication with the plane after TSHTF, I wouldn’t put much faith in the “load shift” theory.
We have to wait. And there’s a fair possibility that we may never know.
In the Air Force, nothing garners swift attention quite like an IFE that ends badly.
We have to wait. And there’s a fair possibility that we may never know.
In the Air Force, nothing garners swift attention quite like an IFE that ends badly.
KunsanVeteran · M
independentone · M
@KunsanVeteran That sounds like something Trump would say, I hope he didn't react that way though
ArishMell · 70-79, M
"Load shift"?
Is the USAAF saying it was not loaded properly?
Is the USAAF saying it was not loaded properly?
View 2 more replies »
KunsanVeteran · M
@ArishMell The AFSC in the USAF for a “load master” is 1A1X2. The load master is an enlisted member who is charged with all factors related to the weight & balance of the cargo and passengers of the plane.
A very odd thing to claim early after a crash (especially a huge plane like a B-52), I would think, would be a load shift.
Under tRUMP and Kegsbreath there seems to be a propensity to very early on release a narrative designed primarily to shift blame away from themselves and set up someone else to take the fall.
Let’s let the investigation proceed and see what, if anything, shakes out.
A very odd thing to claim early after a crash (especially a huge plane like a B-52), I would think, would be a load shift.
Under tRUMP and Kegsbreath there seems to be a propensity to very early on release a narrative designed primarily to shift blame away from themselves and set up someone else to take the fall.
Let’s let the investigation proceed and see what, if anything, shakes out.
DownTheStreet · 56-60, M
independentone · M
@DownTheStreet That's true, it's always had a lot of test flights as far back as I can remember. I wasn't born yet, but even Yeager broke the sound barrier out of Eddies
Thatsright · 61-69, M
@DownTheStreet Maybe it had test weights in it.
KunsanVeteran · M
Crew of eight.
Initial report said that the crash was deemed “unsurvivable.”
This particular B-52 was built in the early 1960’s.
We’ll see what additional information is released.
Initial report said that the crash was deemed “unsurvivable.”
This particular B-52 was built in the early 1960’s.
We’ll see what additional information is released.
independentone · M
@KateATX Why is that? In socal Edwards has always been referred to as eddies sand box. It's in the middle of the Mojave Desert
