US military plane crash in California leaves 8 dead
A B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff at a US Air Force base in Southern California’s Mojave Desert and burst into flames, killing all eight people aboard, military officials said.
Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft that went down around 11.20 am Monday 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 board included Government contractors and uniformed military. 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 modernisation programme”.
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 US military from Vietnam to Iran. In 2025, Boeing sent a B-52 to Edwards with a new, modernised 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 US Air Force’s aircraft test and development efforts and is about 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 also 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.
It’s too soon to say what might have happened.
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.
