A B-52 bomber crashed shortly after leaving the runway Monday morning at a U.S. Air Force installation in Southern California’s Mojave Desert, according to military officials.
The aircraft went down at approximately 11:20 a.m. at Edwards Air Force Base, the military announced via the social platform X. As of the initial report, there was no word on whether anyone aboard was injured or killed.
Footage captured at the scene showed a large column of black smoke billowing up from the desert floor.
By shortly before 1 p.m., the base had closed its airfield and was redirecting all incoming aircraft elsewhere. Officials also announced that all non-commercial visitor passes to the installation had been suspended, saying the move was necessary “to allow the installation to focus entirely on emergency response operations.”
The aircraft involved, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, is a long-range bomber that has been in service since 1955. It is normally operated by a crew of five and was built to carry both conventional and nuclear weapons. The aircraft has seen combat use across decades of American military operations, from the Vietnam War to more recent engagements in the Middle East.
Edwards Air Force Base sits roughly 100 miles north of Los Angeles and serves as a major hub for U.S. Air Force aircraft testing and development. The 412th Test Wing, which oversees the base, is responsible for developmental testing of all Air Force aircraft, weapons systems, software, and components — both before they are purchased by the military and throughout their operational life. The base also holds a place in aviation history as the site where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947.
This incident comes nearly a year after a separate B-52-related close call, when a regional airliner flying over North Dakota made an abrupt maneuver last July to avoid a potential midair collision with a military B-52 that had entered its flight path.
