8 people died in B-52 bomber crash at US Air Force base in Southern
California, officials say
[June 16, 2026]
By CHRISTOPHER WEBER and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff at a U.S.
Air Force base in Southern California’s Mojave Desert and burst into
flames Monday, killing all eight people aboard, military officials said.
Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft that went
down around 11:20 a.m. during a routine test mission at Edwards Air
Force Base, which is north of Los Angeles. Black smoke rose from a large
swath of charred desert near the runway on the base, with emergency
vehicles nearby.
Those on the B-52 included government contractors and uniformed
military. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing confirmed Monday evening that two
of its employees were on board.
After reviewing footage of the crash, it was determined that no one
could have survived, Col. James Hayes, the deputy commander for the 412
test wing at Edwards, said at a news conference.
“We lost eight great Americans,” Hayes said, adding that officials were
working to notify their families.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, and it could take up
to six months to complete an investigation, Hayes said, but shared that
the B-52 was supporting the “radar modernization program.”
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range bomber that entered
service in 1955. Designed to carry both conventional and nuclear
weapons, it has been used in conflicts involving the U.S. military from
Vietnam to Iran.
In 2025, Boeing sent a B-52 to Edwards with a new, modernized radar
system. A test team planned to conduct ground and flight test activities
on the aircraft throughout 2026 to feed a production decision, the air
force said in a 2025 news release. The modern Active Electronically
Scanned Array (AESA) radar system replaced the aircraft’s antiquated
radar for efficacy. It was unclear if that was the same aircraft
involved in Monday’s crash.
Edwards Air Force Base is home to a large portion of the U.S. Air
Force’s aircraft test and development efforts and is about 100 miles
(161 km) north of Los Angeles. 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 where Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager reached
a speed of Mach 1.05 and broke the sound barrier in 1947.
The airfield was closed most of Monday and all inbound aircraft were
being diverted, but it reopened to people coming onto the base by late
afternoon. Non-commercial visitor passes for the base were suspended as
emergency crews doused the flames.
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Smoke plumes rise from a B-52 bomber that crashed shortly after
takeoff at a U.S. Air Force base in Southern California, Monday,
June 15, 2026. (Debbie Reyes Katz via AP Photo)
It’s too soon to say what might have happened.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said he is deeply saddened by the
lives lost.
“We mourn this loss and honor the service of our Airmen, civilians,
and contractors who work every day to advance our mission,” he said
in a post on X.
The way the B-52 crashed so quickly after takeoff without getting
very high or going far makes aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti
suspect some kind of flight control malfunction.
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,” said Guzzetti, who
used to investigate crashes for both the Federal Aviation
Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
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.
In recent years, fatal Air Force training accidents in the U.S. have
included an instructor pilot who was killed in 2024 when the
ejection seat activated while the aircraft was still on the ground
in Texas and an Air Force ROTC cadet's death in a 2022 accident
involving a Humvee during a training exercise in Idaho. Two Air
Force pilots were killed when a trainer jet crashed near an Alabama
airport in 2021.
___
Toropin reported from Washington, D.C. AP Transportation Writer Josh
Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and AP reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle
and Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.
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