{"id":362148,"date":"2026-06-16T01:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/362148\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T01:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:15:18","slug":"edwards-air-force-base-bomber-crashed-on-takeoff-in-california-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/362148\/","title":{"rendered":"Edwards Air Force Base bomber crashed on takeoff in California desert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight people are presumed dead after a B-52 bomber crashed Monday at Edwards Air Force Base in California.<\/p>\n

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The B-52 Stratofortress went down shortly after its 11:20 a.m. PT takeoff from Edwards, the 412th Test Wing of the Air Force, which oversees base operations<\/a>, said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cInitial indications are that the crash was not survivable,\u201d officials said.<\/p>\n

The aircraft, which was supporting the \u201cradar modernization program,\u201d was on a \u201croutine test mission\u201d when it went down, officials said. <\/p>\n

The cause of the crash is unclear, and it could take up to six months to complete an investigation, officials said. <\/p>\n

The eight people on board included government contractors and uniformed military.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost eight great Americans,\u201d Col. James Hayes, the deputy commander for the 412 test wing at Edwards, said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

The identities of those on board have not been released, but Boeing confirmed that two of its employees had been killed. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of the eight crew members who lost their lives on the B-52 crash,\u201d the aerospace company said in a statement Monday evening. <\/p>\n

Edwards Air Force Base is about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Aerial video of the crash site showed a large black, smoking debris field in the desert.<\/p>\n

Built by Boeing, the Stratofortress is a long-range bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons. <\/p>\n

Nicknamed \u201cthe Buff,\u201d for Big Ugly Fat Fellow, it\u2019s been the go-to bomber for the U.S. military since 1955, according to Air Force Global Strike Command. <\/a><\/p>\n

Each plane costs $84 million and is manned by a crew of five, including an aircraft commander, a pilot, a radar navigator, a navigator and an electronic warfare officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight people are presumed dead after a B-52 bomber crashed Monday at Edwards Air Force Base in California.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-362148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}