A US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber takes off from RAF Fairford in south-west England on March 15, 2026. Fairford is one of two bases, along with the Diego Garcia facility in the Indian Ocean, that the UK has given the US permission to use for

A US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber in south-west England on March 15, 2026.
Photo: HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP

A US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber crashed shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California’s Mojave Desert, the base said.

Aerial video footage of the crash scene on Tuesday (NZT), about 16 km north of Los Angeles, showed a charred, smouldering patch of the desert floor roughly the size of a football field as an emergency vehicle drove along the perimeter of the site.

There were no large pieces of debris readily visible in the footage.

“Emergency crews immediately responded to the scene and the situation is ongoing,” the base wrote in a post on X.

The multi-engine jet bomber crashed “shortly after takeoff on the Edwards airfield at 11:20 a.m.,” the base said in the official alert on X.

There was no immediate word on the number of crew members aboard the plane, or on whether anyone survived.

-Reuters