8 crew members killed when a B-52 bomber crashes at California’s Edwards Air Force Base

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By Taylor Romine, Davis Winkie, Lauren Mascarenhas, Holly Yan, CNN

(CNN) — A mammoth military plane on a routine test mission crashed shortly after takeoff Monday in Southern California, killing all eight crew members on board and leaving charred wreckage so mangled it was barely recognizable.

The crash of the B-52 bomber sent a towering black plume of smoke into the sky at Edwards Air Force Base, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, and left a colossal, blackened scar on the runway and the desert terrain beside it.

“It was tragic and unsurvivable,” Air Force Col. James Hayes said at a news conference.

The crew was a mix of military service members, government-employed civilians and government contractors, he said.

The calamity is the deadliest crash involving a B-52 bomber since 1982. In that incident, nine crew members died in test training at the Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, California, The Associated Press reported at the time.

The B-52 Stratofortress in Monday’s crash took off at 11:20 a.m. local time to perform a test supporting a B-52 radar modernization program, Air Force officials said.

The military has not publicly released victims’ names, saying it first needed to notify relatives. At least one victim – Jeromy Smith, a civilian flight test engineer for the Department of Defense – has been publicly identified by relatives.

Boeing, the manufacturer of the plane, said two of its employees were on Monday’s flight. “We are in contact with their families and are offering support,” Boeing said in a release.

Secretary of the Air Force Troy E. Meink and House Speaker Mike Johnson both shared their condolences on social media about the lives lost. California Gov. Gavin Newsom also offered his sympathies to “the entire Edwards Air Force Base community” and thanked first responders.

The base’s runway was left with a large blackened scar and residual smoke, but it was difficult to make out any distinct parts of the wreckage, video from CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS shows.

The base has been reopened, Hayes said Monday, but the airfield is closed until further notice. There were several fires that restarted overnight at the crash site, and maintenance and Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams are helping ensure the area is safe for the search and recovery team to come in, said Mary Becerra, a spokesperson for the base.

Military officials will investigate what happened, but the exact details won’t be available to the public for about six months, Hayes said.

Smith, the civilian flight test engineer, worked at the base for 10 years and was the father of two boys – a 2-year-old and 4-month-old – his wife Lauren Smith said in a statement shared by his sister-in-law Lindsey Smith.

“He has been involved in several missions and dedicated his time doing what he loved,” Lauren Smith’s statement reads. “He shared a special love for bomber planes, second to his family. He cherished being a father to two young boys … . He was also an amazing, devoted husband. We will all miss him very much.”

The base established a center to help provide resources to service members and their families in the aftermath of the tragedy.

A base known for test flights

Edwards Air Force Base is historically used as a testing site – not just for Air Force planes, but for other aircraft, helicopters, drones and even space shuttles because of its long runways.

“If it flies, it’s tested at Edwards Air Force Base,” said Richard Kolko, a retired US Navy commander and pilot. “It’s got some of the best test pilots and best engineers out there.”

Test flights typically go up with some of the most seasoned pilots and air crew available, and – depending on what is being tested – civilian engineers or manufacture personnel as well, Kolko said. The base also has a robust emergency response team for any accidents, he added.

The base’s rich history as a test site has also been punctuated by tragedies. According to the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives, an international database of aviation crashes, the deadly crashes at Edwards include:

• In 1951, all eight people on board a B-50 flight to test equipment died when the aircraft crashed in mountains about 25 miles southeast of Edwards.
• In 1948, four people were killed when an Air Force-operated DC-3 encountered a rainstorm and crashed while descending toward Edwards.
• In 1944, nine people were killed after an Army Air Forces B-24 left Edwards for a training exercise. “In unknown circumstances, the four engine aircraft crashed in a desert area” about 35 miles east of Edwards, the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives said.
• In 1941, all six crew members aboard an Army Air Forces twin-engine B-26 were killed shortly after takeoff when the plane stalled, crashed and burst into flames.

Edwards also was one of the sites for US space shuttle landings. In the program’s early years, Edwards was the primary shuttle landing site – the desert lakebed surrounding the runway gave an extra margin of safety – until NASA became comfortable landing shuttles in Florida.

A military behemoth that can carry 35 tons of bombs

The B-52 is one of the Air Force’s oldest aircraft and first entered service in 1955. The long-range heavy bomber, which typically carries a crew of five, can carry as much as 70,000 pounds of bombs and other munitions.

The currently flown version, the B-52H, still plays a major role in the Air Force’s fleet, which included 76 of the aircraft before the crash. It was used in bombing missions during the current US-Iran conflict and is capable of carrying nuclear bombs and nuclear-armed cruise missiles.

Monday’s crash happened during a test flight supporting the B-52 Radar Modernization Program. The goal of the program is to “modernize the B-52 as its planned service life now extends through 2050 and potentially beyond” while the aircraft “becomes the long-range strike complement to the Air Force’s newest strategic bomber, the B-21 Raider,” the Air Force said in December.

Along with a new radar, B-52s “are scheduled to receive additional upgrades, including new engines, crew compartments, conventional and nuclear communication systems, avionics, weapons and other capabilities.”

Before Monday’s crash, the most recent fatal accident involving the aircraft was in 2008, when six Air Force personnel were killed after their B-52 crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Guam while preparing for a parade flyover.

The Boeing-made bomber has not been in production since 1962, though several life-extension initiatives have modernized the airframe and kept it flying. The Air Force recently launched another B-52 upgrade initiative centered around designing new engines with a total expected price tag of $48.6 billion, according to Defense News.

Because the aircraft is no longer in production, any replacements must be sourced from dismantled airframes stored at the so-called “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, as was done after a non-fatal 2016 crash that destroyed a B-52H in Guam.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Michael Callahan, Andy Rose and Hanna Park contributed to this report.