By Lara Seligman and Marcus Weisgerber
Eight crew members are believed dead after a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber they were on crashed shortly after takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the base said Monday.
Emergency crews immediately responded to the crash, which occurred at 11:20 a.m. local time, according to a social-media post from the base.
"An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress carrying eight people on a routine test mission crashed today shortly after takeoff at 11:20 a.m. $(PDT)$," according to a statement from the base post on social media. "Initial indications are that the crash was not survivable."
The crash is under investigation, according to the statement.
A towering plume of smoke was seen in the skies over the base after the crash, according to photos posted on X.
The B-52, which came into service in 1952, has been a staple in the Air Force since the Cold War. Originally designed for long-range nuclear strikes, the Boeing-made plane has been a workhorse used to strike targets with nonnuclear weapons during the decadeslong military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more recently against Iran. The B-52H, which is still flown today, was delivered in the early 1960s.
The Air Force uses four of its 76 B-52 for testing. A U.S. official says it was one of the test aircraft that crashed on Monday.
The eight-engine bomber has been used in recent years as a "mothership" aircraft for hypersonic-weapons.
The Air Force is planning to replace the 1960s-era engines on the B-52 with modern engines that are more fuel-efficient. The new engines along with other upgrades, including new radars, are supposed to keep the plane flying until the aircraft marks a century in service.
Edwards is home to some of the Air Force's most secretive research. It houses the Air Force Test Center, Air Force Test Pilot School and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Armstrong Flight Research Center. Chuck Yeager's 1947 flight that broke the sound barrier occurred at Edwards, as did the first landings of the Space Shuttle in 1981.
The base was closed Monday and all incoming aircraft were diverted elsewhere.
The Air Force has had "significant challenges with respect to aging" aircraft, said retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, noting that the aircraft that crashed was roughly 65 years old.
"The Air Force is the oldest and the smallest it's ever been," Deptula said. "That's a result of decades of underfunding and delayed operations and not just sustained but increased operational demand."
Write to Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com and Marcus Weisgerber at marcus.weisgerber@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 15, 2026 18:41 ET (22:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.