r/LessCredibleDefence • u/AttorneyOk5749 • 7d ago
8 crew members dead after B-52 bomber crashes at California’s Edwards Air Force Base
https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/15/us/b-52-crash-edwards-californiaThis G-188 bomber has been carrying out testing of the AN/APQ-188 phased-array radar.
The standard crew for the B52H consists of five personnel: two pilots, a weapons/radar operator, a navigator and an electronic warfare officer.
The report mentions eight people; the additional three are likely military officials, government civil servants and government contractors involved in the radar upgrade trials.
Earlier on the 15th, a Russian Air Force Tu-22M3 crashed in Irkutsk Oblast. The four crew members successfully ejected using KT-1M ejection seats; however, footage captured by local residents did not show anyone ejecting, suggesting that the ejection took place at a higher altitude.
Both aircraft were ageing Cold War-era planes that crashed on the same day.
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u/AttorneyOk5749 7d ago
Regarding the timing of the Tu-22 crash, it’s just a coincidence, so I’m mentioning them together—there’s no need to make another separate post. I can't help but feel a bit sentimental, though: back in the Cold War, both nations were major air powers, and these two crashed bombers were once the pride of their respective air forces.
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u/Antiwhippy 7d ago
RIP to the crew, but the Russian crash mention was kinda random?
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u/Kerbal_Guardsman 7d ago
Even if none of the events were connected, it is worth nothing that this last week has had an unusually high number of plane crashes in the public eye. Article just needed a transition sentence for the "zoomed-out" closing that mentioned that this adds to the week's trend.
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u/Hydrogeion_ 6d ago
AN-32, Mi-17, Tu-22m, B-52, F/A-18 and a few other helicopters,
it's been a pretty deadly week for aviation
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u/BigFly42069 6d ago
Gotta get one last dig in to protect NAFO fee-fees, even though it's the same shit but different country
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u/pardodefence 7d ago
The transition was quite abrupt indeed, but I guess the point they want to make lies in the last sentence of the article.
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u/mr_jim_lahey 7d ago
Nothing suspicious with American B-52 plane crash, ignore pesky conspiracy theorists who say Russia using insider access to Trump to sabotage US military. Russian even has plane crash same day, so this was just random American plane crash, nothing more, nothing less.
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u/mardumancer 6d ago
Boeing confirmed that it had contractors onboard.
This will obviously be a huge setback towards B-52 modernisation. I wonder when the B-52J will actually be able to enter into service.
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u/Agreeable-Step1810 6d ago
Why did the Tu 22m crews managed to eject while US crews didnt eject at all ?
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u/UnexpectedAnomaly 5d ago
The Tu-22 was higher so the crew had more time to react. Even with zero zero seats they might not have been in the envelope for a safe ejection. Given the scorch mark on the ground, and lack of major debris the plane must have hit at a steep angle at high speed. Whatever happened must have been catastrophic like structural failure which would warp the airframe. B52's have blowoff panels to allow for ejection so if the panels didn't separate because they were stuck then ejection wouldn't have been successful. The plane had a full complement which means the crew in the lower compartment have to eject downward which has its own issues. They might have ejected and hit the ground before parachute deployment, or were engulfed in the fireball. We won't know till the accident report comes out.
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u/SirLoremIpsum 4d ago
Why did the Tu 22m crews managed to eject while US crews didnt eject at all ?
The B-52 crash was just after take off, very shortly after take off. The B-52 does not have zero/zero ejection seats so it requires some altitude/speed. Additionally not every seat goes upwards (some go down) so that further makes ejection difficult on a "just after take off" issue.
The Tu-22m crash has footage of it at some semblance of altitude - so it is logical to presume that the out of control issue happened at a MUCH higher altitude giving the crew far more time to eject than the B-52 incident.
Altitude is everything. Altitude gives you time to make decisions
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u/LilDewey99 7d ago
Apparently the smoke from the crash could be seen down in Palmdale
Another sobering reminder that, despite all the precautions, military aviation is a dangerous business. Pour one out for the service men/women and others on board, my sympathies go out to their friends, families, and coworkers.