{"id":1962,"date":"2026-06-17T13:53:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/?p=1962"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:53:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:53:04","slug":"b-52-was-in-the-air-a-very-short-time-before-crashing-and-killing-all-8-on-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/?p=1962","title":{"rendered":"B-52 was in the air a very short time before crashing and killing all 8 on board"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The\u00a0B-52 that crashed<\/span>\u00a0during a test flight at\u00a0Edwards Air Force Base in California<\/span>\u00a0was in the air a very short time before slamming into the ground about halfway down the runway.<\/p>\n

All eight people aboard were killed in Monday\u2019s fiery crash of the\u00a0Boeing<\/span>\u00a0B-52 Stratofortress, which was taking part in a test mission as part of a program to keep the oldest aircraft in the U.S. fleet flying for decades to come.<\/p>\n

No cause has been determined. Officials at the base said it could take six months to complete the investigation.<\/p>\n

The bomber took off shortly before noon on a clear day, heading southwest into the prevailing winds. It flew straight and crashed on the same 15,000-foot (4,572-meter) runway. The compact wreckage indicates the plane dropped sharply.<\/p>\n

Officials have not yet released the names of the crash victims.<\/p>\n

Lauren Smith told Eyewitness News KBAK-CBS and FOX58 that her husband, Jeromy Smith, was among the victims. He was a flight test engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense and died doing what he loved, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is such a horrible hurt, and I\u2019m still processing everything that happened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The airfield remained closed Tuesday. Crews were making the crash site safe for search and recovery teams to enter, after fires flared up overnight, said Mike Paoli, a spokesperson for the 412 Test Wing at Edwards.<\/p>\n

The aircraft was supporting a \u201cradar modernization program,\u201d Col. James Hayes, the deputy commander for the 412 Test Wing, said Monday. In 2025, Boeing sent a B-52 to Edwards with a modernized radar system that is key to keeping the bomber in the air through at least 2050, nearly a century after it first entered service.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s antiquated radar. It was unclear if that was the same aircraft involved in Monday\u2019s crash.<\/p>\n

AESA replaced 1960s radar technology and offers improved navigation and targeting capabilities, according to a 2023 news release from Raytheon, which designed the new system for the Air Force\u2019s entire B-52 fleet.<\/p>\n

B-52 began flying in the 1950s<\/h2>\n

The B-52, a long-range bomber that entered service in 1955, is designed to carry both conventional and nuclear weapons. It has been\u00a0used in conflicts involving the U.S. military from Vietnam<\/span>\u00a0to Iran.<\/p>\n

Along with a new radar, the fleet of 76 B-52s are scheduled to receive additional upgrades, including new engines, crew compartments, conventional and nuclear communication systems, avionics and weapons. The military said the goal is to make the B-52 a complement to the Air Force\u2019s newest strategic bomber, the\u00a0B-21 Raider<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft that went down at the base in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles (161 km) northeast of Los Angeles. Officials determined no one could have survived after reviewing footage of the crash, Hayes said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

Those on the B-52 included government contractors, Boeing employees and uniformed military.<\/p>\n

Edwards is home to the 412th Test Wing, which conducts regular developmental testing of all Air Force aircraft, weapons systems, software and components before purchase by the service as well as throughout their life span. Test missions take place at Edwards daily, Hayes said.<\/p>\n

The base is where\u00a0Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager<\/a><\/span>\u00a0reached a speed of Mach 1.05 and broke the sound barrier in 1947.<\/p>\n

Investigators will closely examine the flight controls and engines<\/h2>\n

Aviation safety experts have said their first thoughts about what might have caused the crash were about a malfunction in the flight controls or engines, but it is way too early to know. And investigators will consider a myriad of factors, including the age and maintenance of the plane.<\/p>\n

J. Joseph, a retired Marine Corps colonel and airline pilot. said that even in a B-52 with eight engines, a malfunction can make the plane difficult to control if the pilot loses the outboard engines, and the forces pushing the plane get out of balance in a condition Joseph called asymmetric thrust. Although if there is time, the pilots can adjust the other throttles to rebalance the forces.<\/p>\n

Heather Penney, a former F-16 combat pilot and aviation expert, said she knew one of the people who died aboard the B-52 personally \u2014 reinforcing how tragic this crash is for the close-knit community of military aviators. She declined to name the person before officials do.<\/p>\n

She said it is unlikely that pilot error caused this crash given the expert training and experience of the test pilots on this flight. The age of the B-52 also opens up the possibility of problems with the structure of the plane.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe youngest B- 52 was delivered to the Air Force in 1962. That was before the Cuban missile crisis, before the first man walked on the moon, before we had personal computers,\u201d said Penney, who is director of Studies and Research at The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. \u201cThese are old airplanes. They\u2019re structurally robust, but they are old aircraft. So structural failure can\u2019t be ruled out.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the modernization efforts and upgrades that have been made to the B-52s over the decades have extended the life of these planes. At some point, these bombers will have to be replaced, but for now they continue to play a crucial role for the Air Force.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe B-52 fleet that we have today, is the backbone of America\u2019s bomber force. It\u2019s over 50% of our bomber force, and it can go further, have larger payload, and stay airborne longer without refueling than any of our other bombers,\u201d Penney said. \u201cThere\u2019s no other bomber in our force has the attributes of the B-52. It\u2019s been a workhorse. It\u2019s going to continue to be a workhorse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The\u00a0B-52 that crashed\u00a0during a test flight at\u00a0Edwards Air Force Base in California\u00a0was in the air a very short time before slamming … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,46,3,45,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation","category-featured-stories","category-military","category-motivation","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1964,"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962\/revisions\/1964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofmotivations.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}