8 Feared Dead in B-52 Crash in California

A B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff Monday morning at a US Air Force base in California's Mojave desert, officials said. Emergency crews were responding after the aircraft went down around 11:20am at Edwards Air Force Base, the military said in a post on X. In a news release later Monday, the base said the B-52 Stratofortress was carrying eight people and "initial indications are that the crash was not survivable." The base said the aircraft was on a "routine test mission." Photos shared on social media showed a huge plume of black smoke coming from the base, the New York Post reports.

• Edwards Air Force Base is home to a large portion of the US Air Force's aircraft test and development efforts and is about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, the AP reports. 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 Air Force describes the B-52 as "the backbone of the strategic bomber force for the United States" for more than 60 years. The last one was built in 1962, but the Air Force plans to keep operating them until 2050. It has been used in conflicts from Vietnam to Iran.

• 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, the AP reports. But it's too soon to say what might have caused the control problem. It's possible the controls were rigged wrong after maintenance, he says, or a catastrophic engine problem or a failure of a piece of equipment that was being tested.
• "I think it was definitely a controllability issue. Now, whether that was tied to an engine failure, a flight control failure, or some new testing device failure, I'm not sure," says Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
• This story has been updated with new developments.