A B-52 bomber crashed shortly after take-off at a US Air Force base in Southern California's Mojave Desert on Monday, killing all eight people on board. Military officials said the aircraft went down around 11.20am local time during a routine test mission at Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles.
Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft. Black smoke rose from a large swath of charred desert near what appeared to be a runway, with emergency vehicles nearby. After reviewing the footage, Colonel James Hayes, the deputy commander at Edwards Air Force Base, said at a news conference that it was determined no one could have survived.
“We lost eight great Americans,” Hayes said, adding that officials were working to notify their families. “This is a tragedy – something we never plan for, but we’re always prepared for.”
On board was a mix of military service members and government and civilian contractors. Air Force officials didn't name the victims, saying they were still notifying next of kin.
It isn't immediately clear what caused the crash, and it could take up to six months to complete an investigation, Hayes said. He shared that the B-52 was supporting the “radar modernisation program”.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, said the way the B-52 crashed so quickly after take-off without getting very high or going far made him suspect some kind of flight-control malfunction. But it's too soon to say what might have caused the control problem. It's possible the controls were rigged wrong after maintenance, he said, or a catastrophic engine problem or a failure of a piece of equipment that was being tested.
“I think it was definitely a controllability issue. Now, whether that was tied to an engine failure, a flight-control failure, or some new testing-device failure, I’m not sure,” Guzzetti said.
The Stratofortress, designed and built by Boeing, is a long-range, subsonic aircraft that has long served as the backbone of the US’s crewed strategic bomber force. The swept-wing aircraft is capable of carrying nuclear and precision-guided conventional munitions, including cluster bombs and gravity bombs, at altitudes of up to about 15,000 metres, according to an air force fact sheet.
At 48 metres long and with a wingspan of more than 56 metres, the Stratofortress weighs more than 80,000 kilograms, and has a maximum take-off weight of almost 220,000 kilograms. The B-52 entered service in 1955 and has been used in conflicts from Vietnam to Iran, with a top speed of about 1,000 km/h (Mach 0.84) and a range of more than 14,000 kilometres.
Monday's incident marked the first crash of a B-52 Stratofortress since the same type of bomber crashed on the island of Guam in May 2016, according to the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archive, a Geneva-based organisation that collects global aviation accident data. All seven crew members aboard that aircraft survived.
It also comes almost a year after the pilot of a regional airliner flying over North Dakota made an unexpected sharp turn to avoid a possible midair collision with a military B-52 bomber that was in its flight path last July.
Only the H model of the B-52 remains in the air force inventory, and it's assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana – both under the Air Force Global Strike Command – and to the Reserve Command’s 307th Bomb Wing at Barksdale.
Edwards Air Force Base is home to a large portion of the US Air Force’s aircraft test and development efforts. The 412th Test Wing, which runs the base, also conducts developmental testing of all air force aircraft, weapons systems, software and components before purchase by the service as well as throughout their lifespan. The vast desert base is also where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound in 1947.
Although the Air Force has been flying B-52 bombers for more than 70 years, testing out new equipment on a plane can create new challenges. “A flight test is always riskier than normal operations, so that’s why you have specially trained test pilots, and you should have other safety protocols,” Guzzetti said.