USA: US B-52 bomber crashes in California – eight feared dead

B-52 “Stratofortress”

Nuclear-capable US bomber crashed – no survivors

B-52 bombers have been the backbone of the US Air Force for decades. Now one of the planes crashed in California.

After the crash of a B-52 bomber with eight crew members on board, the US military does not expect any survivors. The accident occurred shortly after takeoff, said Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The accident occurred around 11:20 a.m. local time. Rescue workers were on site immediately, the airport said. The cause of the crash is initially unclear. According to the announcement, the military airport has been closed for the time being. All incoming aircraft would be diverted.

These recordings distributed by Fox News are supposed to show the crash site:

The Boeing B-52 aircraft are long-range bombers and have been in service with the US Air Force since the mid-1950s. They are also known as “Stratofortress” (in German: “Fortress in the Stratosphere”). Normally they have five crew members on board. The aircraft, 70 to 80 of which the USA still uses, have been repeatedly modernized over the decades and are still flown for long-haul missions today. They can drop both conventional warheads and nuclear bombs.

Edwards Air Force Base is located a good 100 kilometers north of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert. Among other things, it serves the military as a testing ground. In the past, the USA had tested stealth drones and jets with six times the speed of sound from there.

For more than 60 years, the B-52 has been the backbone of the United States bomber fleet. On the one hand, they serve as a nuclear deterrent, but they were also used repeatedly in the Iran War – for example because they can drop particularly heavy, bunker-busting bombs.

In 2016, a US Air Force B-52 bomber crashed on the Pacific island of Guam. At that time, all seven people on board were uninjured.

An accident in 1966 was far more devastating when a B-52 bomber collided with a tanker plane in Spain. Both planes crashed near the town of Palomares. The atomic bombs on board the B-52 – with many times the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb – did not explode. However, two of them burst upon impact with the ground and released radioactive plutonium.