US Air Force B-52 bomber crashes in California; 8-member crew presumed dead

File: A United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber takes off from RAF Fairford on March 19, 2026 in Fairford, England. Leon Neal | Getty Images A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber crashed on ​Monday shortly after takeoff from ​Edwards Air Force Base in ​Southern California's Mojave Desert, and all eight crew members aboard were presumed to have been killed, the base said. The eight-engine, jet-powered aircraft, built to carry nuclear and conventional bombs, was on a routine test mission when ⁠it ‌went down, Edwards said in a statement about four ⁠hours after the crash. Aerial video footage of the crash scene, about 100 miles (161 km) north of Los Angeles, showed a charred, smoldering patch of the desert floor roughly the size of a football field as an emergency vehicle was seen ‌driving along the site's perimeter. There were no large pieces of debris readily visible in the footage. "An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress carrying eight people on a routine test mission crashed today ​after take-off at 11:20 a.m. (PDT). Initial indications are that the crash was not survivable," the base said in an update posted on X. It said an emergency response team was on the scene, and officials were "working to account for all personnel." The Air Force ⁠said the cause of the crash was under investigation. The Stratofortress, designed and built by Boeing, is a long-range, subsonic ‌aircraft that has long served as the backbone of the U.S. …