{"id":362483,"date":"2026-06-16T07:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/362483\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T07:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:01:07","slug":"8-crew-members-likely-dead-after-b-52-bomber-crashes-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/362483\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Crew Members Likely Dead After B-52 Bomber Crashes in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight crew members are believed dead after an Air Force B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base<\/a> in California on Monday.<\/p>\n

Emergency responders rushed to the scene after the aircraft went down around 11:20 a.m. local time during what officials described as a “routine test mission.”<\/p>\n

“An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress carrying eight people on a routine test mission crashed today shortly after takeoff at 11:20 a.m. (PDT),” Edwards Air Force Base said in a social media statement. “Initial indications are that the crash was not survivable.”<\/p>\n

Edwards Air Force Base did not immediately respond to a request for comments.<\/p>\n

Images from the crash showed a large plume of black smoke rising from the base.<\/p>\n

\"Smoke<\/p>\n

A large plume of black smoke rises from the Edwards Air Force Base.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ALERTCalifornia, via REUTERS\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Edwards Air Force Base posted on X that it has closed operations and diverted incoming aircraft as of 12:48 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n

Edwards Air Force Base is home to some of the military’s most advanced flight-testing programs, including the Air Force Test Center and Test Pilot School. The 480 square-mile base in Kern County was where pilot Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound in 1947.<\/p>\n

In a separate statement on Monday evening, Boeing said two of its employees were on board the aircraft when the B-52 crashed.<\/p>\n

“We are in contact with their families and are offering support,” the firm said.<\/p>\n

The Boeing-made B-52 Stratofortress<\/a> first entered service in the 1950s and remains a key part of the Air Force’s bomber fleet. The aircraft has been used in conflicts in the Middle East, including recently against Iran.<\/p>\n

The US maintains an active fleet of 72 of these heavy, long-range bombers<\/a>. The workhorse strike aircraft for the Air Force, they can refuel mid-flight and thus can deliver a maximum payload of 70,000 pounds practically anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

The warplane has also long been a pillar of the US nuclear umbrella, with some versions capable of carrying up to 32 nuclear cruise missiles at a time.<\/p>\n

The Air Force plans to keep flying the B-52 until 2050. To that end, it’s been upgrading the fleet, including replacing the aircraft’s aging engines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight crew members are believed dead after an Air Force B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff from Edwards…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[147292,147291,147295,7271,147294,7,9,8,8142,350,5850,147086,8568,116922,1024,147293,57855],"class_list":["post-362483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-a-m-local-time","tag-air-force-b-52-bomber","tag-air-force-test-center","tag-aircraft","tag-b-52-bomber-crashes","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-comment","tag-crash","tag-crew-member","tag-edwards-air-force-base","tag-image","tag-large-plume","tag-monday","tag-routine-test-mission","tag-takeoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362483","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=362483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}