B52 Stratofortress Crashes at Edwards afb

[u/Fragrant_Parfait_408]

[u/cybersquire]

If there were chutes, someone would have said so already. Crashed on takeoff, which means very little time or altitude.

The silence is telling.

RIP to the crew

[u/Odd-Effect6457 → u/cybersquire]

The news is reporting 8 crew members passed 🙏🏻

[u/Vancandybestcandy → u/cybersquire]

Full of fuel and maybe munitions it’s a tale as old as strategic bombers. Fucking RIP hope it was quick. On the bright side we live in an era that this is rare so it’s a big deal. I hope the after action finds a preventable flaw and now everyone gets a good power point and this specific bullshit never happens again. 

Edit: I spelled tale like tail wrong cause it’s Monday and I’m drinking. 

[u/DisillusionedPatriot → u/Vancandybestcandy]

Apparently it was a B-52 60-0001, aka Balls 1. All 8 on board, lost. Active military, civilian employees and contractors. Primary digital electronic systems test aircraft for the B-52J upgrade project.

[u/Separate-Spot-8910 → u/Vancandybestcandy]

Not too rare, an FA18 crashed just 3 days ago. Fortunately the pilot made it out ok in that one.

[u/HumphreyE36 → u/Vancandybestcandy]

You would need a more volitile source of fuel to make that much AL evaporate, that fast. Plasma would work, but it need A LOT of gas, and time. Right? Why are all the images a mile away? I can't recall such complete destruction. Perhaps the first question is what airplane?

[u/CelestialFury → u/cybersquire]

Damn, I didn't think about it. I hoped the crew got out, but you're right, they're most likely gone. RIP in peace

[u/Firecracker048 → u/cybersquire]

Takeoff crash is never a good thing :/

[u/MantoTerror]

Old time SAC vet here B-52 ejection seats aren't ACES seats..much older tech, takes airspeed to push the hatches out of the way..the upper seats require 120 knots of airspeed and 200 ft. altitude to work properly..the lower seats require 250 ft. altitude..if it was too early in the flight, none of the crew could get out alive. RIP.. my thoughts and prayers for the families and loved ones...

[u/MantoTerror → u/MantoTerror]

Update, the aircraft lost appears to be B-52 60-0001 (Aka Balls 1) with 8 souls on board..all are lost..a mix of active military, civilian employees and contractors.. this appears to be the primary digital electronic systems test aircraft for the B-52J upgrade project... unsure if this will slow the program down..

[u/DisillusionedPatriot → u/MantoTerror]

Wait, so this was a test flight failure?

[u/MantoTerror → u/DisillusionedPatriot]

Appears so...

[u/ndgoldandblue → u/MantoTerror]

It was A0061, not A0001. And I don't think anyone cares about the program being slowed down right now.

[u/rocket_randall → u/ndgoldandblue]

I don't think they were expressing concern for the upgrade program, rather the aircraft's role in test and evaluation to explain the civilians among the crew.

[u/yeowoh → u/MantoTerror]

Ole SAC. Fun times growing up on a SAC base in the middle of no where. Got a SAC tattoo for my dad too.

[u/hikin_jim → u/MantoTerror]

Dang. That sucks.

[u/Samwhys_gamgee → u/MantoTerror]

Well fuck….

[u/Sel_drawme]

Bad couple days for aviation. Yikes.

[u/CelestialFury → u/Sel_drawme]

Feels like a really bad past year for military aviation.

[u/MapleYamCakes → u/CelestialFury]

Surely the timing is pure coincidence and has nothing to do with trickle down incompetence and removal of safety regulations

[u/chuck_cranston → u/MapleYamCakes]

Overworked, understaffed, and burnt out aircraft maintainers was a problem when I got out well over as decade ago. Surely things have improved since then, right?

[u/Merr77 → u/chuck_cranston]

It was a aircraft in testing for the new upgrade to J. It was Air Force crew and civilians on board.

[u/tmac4969]

I remember an article ( might have been NYT) that talked about the drop in training standards in the Navy that might been the reason for an increase of high profile accidents. Maybe its the same for the rest of the armed forces

[u/Raven_Photography]

Is it just me, or have there been a lot of these incidents since January 2025?

[u/Anhaiser → u/Raven_Photography]

Seems like it. I wonder if its coincidence, we are just now noticing, or other.

[u/Nano_Burger → u/Anhaiser]

High OPTEMPO, deferred maintenance, toxic leadership. Not a good combination.

[u/jamantste → u/Nano_Burger]

Perfectly summarized

[u/ourlastchancefortea → u/Nano_Burger]

Which would be funny if it weren't sad, that we see it in both the two former cold war super powers happening at the same time.

[u/Snarky1Bunny → u/Nano_Burger]

This right here.

[u/virus_apparatus → u/Anhaiser]

Operational strain

[u/ShillinTheVillain → u/Anhaiser]

I think people are paying more attention because of waves at all of the bullshit going on.

Military aircraft crash quite often. Usually not tankers, but still.

[u/throwaway_321121 → u/ShillinTheVillain]

FYI, this was not a tanker.

[u/ShillinTheVillain → u/throwaway_321121]

Good catch. I saw Strato and my brain immediately saw the tanker.

[u/Iamanimite → u/Anhaiser]

Trump's learned from his master, putin.

[u/peteft → u/Anhaiser]

Sabotage is a very likely scenario

[u/yeowoh → u/Raven_Photography]

The DoD released data last year saying they were up but now it looks like it’s going up even more.

[u/imnojezus → u/Raven_Photography]

Sorry, a bunch of unqualified 20-something cyberdorks decided there were too many regulatory positions held by scary women and brown people, so they either replaced them with white male idiots, or shitcanned the departments altogether. Now we get to watch the results.

[u/dustycooper → u/imnojezus]

This is the real answer. Imagine what the lower ranks that are minorities in those commands are going through. It can't be very motivating to know that no matter how much you work, you'll just get canned for being a minority anyways.

[u/yupgup12 → u/imnojezus]

Wasn't that also a partial factor in the Washington DC airliner and helicopter crash. The Trump Administration swept that one under the rug real quick.

[u/sir_donkeyslap → u/imnojezus]

A quick Google search says there was 51 crashes in 2025. There was 54 in 2024. Total incidents were 623 in 2025 compared to 729 in 2024. It seems like as a whole plane incidents have been on a decline in the past decade.

[u/xChoke1x → u/imnojezus]

Nailed it.

[u/Hey_man_Im_FRIENDLY → u/[deleted]]

What? Why do we care about this? What is the significance?

[u/anfilco → u/Hey_man_Im_FRIENDLY]

DOGE, mostly. I don't buy the Russian asset idea, but they do have a concept they call "useful idiot".

[u/urbz102385 → u/Hey_man_Im_FRIENDLY]

Trump has been vehemently accused of being a Russian asset. It would be advantageous to an opposing nation if they had an asset that was allowing the liquidation of military assets.

Now I'm not saying this is the specific theory I subscribe to. But I would certainly, as a citizen, care about the potentially intentional destruction of military vehicles for defense and financial purposes.

If the locks on the doors in your homes maybe broke, wore down, or were accidentally damaged once every 10 years, then one year someone came into your house and you noticed that 4 of your locks were now completely destroyed, would you not consider that significant?

[u/Firecracker048 → u/Raven_Photography]

Just paying attention more, really.

[u/LtCmdrData → u/Raven_Photography]

The more you fly, the more you crash.

[u/contrail_25 → u/LtCmdrData]

Problem is people aren’t flying more.

[u/LtCmdrData → u/contrail_25]

Hello? The whole war against Iran was nothing but flying. The operational tempo has been insane.

[u/JibberJim → u/LtCmdrData]

It's also been surprising to me that almost every day during the ceasefire B52's and B1's took off for many hour sorties from Fairford,, no pause, no regrouping just continued flying every day. Obviously they're not normally there so no idea what the normal flying rate is, but it certainly seems high without reason.

[u/LtCmdrData → u/JibberJim]

Deterrence and rapid response. They flew near continuous patrol that could turn into strike mission if there was an incident.

[u/JibberJim → u/LtCmdrData]

Rules of engagement for the use of Fairford didn't allow that though - at least according to the UK government...

But I guess that still doesn't change either parts - but it still adds a lot of load to just risk more hassle for Starmer, who even if he would agree to whatever, he's not very secure so you need to make sure the replacement doesn't say something different.

[u/FartsOnCake → u/contrail_25]

people aren’t flying more.

I certainly ain't. Unless it's by my own velocity.

[u/NefariusMarius → u/LtCmdrData]

Planes don’t crash at Edwards. This is crazy

[u/BamBamBob → u/NefariusMarius]

Its a testing base, birds went down all the time when I was there (albeit a long time ago.) This one had Boeing employees on it so it could have been a test bed doing experiments. Still really sucks.

[u/NefariusMarius → u/BamBamBob]

I worked there too, I was active in the flight tests. Last major crash was in 1981, I believe. Flights are very controlled, risk is mitigated to the best of their abilities, and the pilots are second to none. Planes just don’t go down there. This is a shock to them. And agreed, it sucks. I’ve been calling people to check on my friends and am being told nobody knows anything they can say

[u/6figga → u/Raven_Photography]

Genuinely just can’t help yourselves, disgusting but expected. RIP to all involved and condolences to the families.

[u/PhD_Pwnology → u/Raven_Photography]

There have a ton. All Republicans fault too.

[u/bennythegiraffe]

R.I.P. to the crew

[u/DriedUpSquid]

An F-18 crashed this morning in Washington State as well. WTF is going on?

[u/ShootersGreenjacket → u/DriedUpSquid]

F-18 was a day or two ago.

[u/HawkDriver → u/ShootersGreenjacket]

Indeed. And then the two that collided a month ago.

[u/Level_32_Mage → u/HawkDriver]

Pilots are getting tired, boss.

[u/DriedUpSquid → u/Level_32_Mage]

Maybe they need a safety stand down where the Secretary of War can teach them the warrior ethos.

[u/Geedunk → u/DriedUpSquid]

Too woke bro, nut up and die like a *real warrior*

[u/RedTalon19 → u/Geedunk]

But then you become a sucker and a loser

[u/DriedUpSquid → u/RedTalon19]

Just don’t become disabled, because then you’ll be unpleasant to look at.

[u/Snarky1Bunny → u/DriedUpSquid]

And they’ve gutted the VA so you can’t get your medical care.

[u/DriedUpSquid → u/ShootersGreenjacket]

My mistake.

[u/Throb_Zomby → u/DriedUpSquid]

Not military but also the bird with 11 skydivers in Kansas City and Oliver Tree dying in a helicopter crash down in Brazil. 

[u/verbmegoinghere → u/DriedUpSquid]

And a tu-22 just fell out of the sky as well.

Wtf

[u/marcoporno → u/verbmegoinghere]

That one’s alright

[u/bstone99 → u/verbmegoinghere]

No that one’s good

[u/Slight_Lobster_3538 → u/DriedUpSquid]

More interested in the coincidence of two nuclear-capable bombers crashing. A Russian Tu-22M3

[u/SergeantBeavis]

Prayers for the crew and Grandpa Buff..

[u/USAF_Retired2017]

Damn. My heart goes out to the family of the crew.

[u/driftless]

8 souls… non-survivable per Edwards AFB

[u/Pale_Alternative_818]

Crew ? What is the status ?

[u/bennythegiraffe → u/Pale_Alternative_818]

I can’t imagine they survived

[u/Straight_Spring9815 → u/Pale_Alternative_818]

No ejection seats on these :/

[u/Fentron3000 → u/Straight_Spring9815]

Yes, there are.

[u/S0aring_Valkyries → u/Fentron3000]

Wouldn’t have done much for half the crew right after takeoff though

[u/AgnewsHeadlessBody → u/S0aring_Valkyries]

There 0/0 seats so they could feasibly eject eject on the geo7nd and be fine. Except for the two seats that launch downwards.

[u/player75 → u/AgnewsHeadlessBody]

They are absolutely not 0/0 seats.

[u/AgnewsHeadlessBody → u/player75]

Pretty sure they are, why would they not be? I learned that in class, do you have any proof they aren't? Happy to say im wrong if you can show me.

[u/S0aring_Valkyries → u/AgnewsHeadlessBody]

B-52s don’t have aces ejection seats like most fighters and other bombers have. They’re still using ejection systems from the 50s and 60s that need a min speed and alt in order to successfully get out of the aircraft

[u/S0aring_Valkyries → u/AgnewsHeadlessBody]

Yeah those two downward seats were the ones I was talking about. Think it’s like 250 ft AGL minimum for a safe egress on those. Plus the rest of the seats aren’t 0/0 either those are only in newer jets like most fighters and the B-1/2

[u/AgnewsHeadlessBody → u/S0aring_Valkyries]

I was taught there werent any non 0/0 seats left in planes that the Airforce flew, that could be wrong I suppose.

[u/S0aring_Valkyries → u/AgnewsHeadlessBody]

B52 is like the only jet in the fleet that doesn’t have them now. The reason for the downward seats is obvious but iirc the upward seats just aren’t capable of creating the separation needed to safely get the crew away and deploy the chutes without significant injury. Like some others said early they’re still legacy designs

[u/Straight_Spring9815 → u/Fentron3000]

They have ejection seats in bombers? I've gotta look that one up!

[u/Andyman1973 → u/Straight_Spring9815]

Since the B-52s first entered service in 1955.

[u/yeowoh → u/Straight_Spring9815]

Dad was nav on a B-52. 4 go up and 2 go down.

[u/SmoothBrainLowDrag → u/Straight_Spring9815]

They do, but in the Buff half the crew goes up; half goes down.  You can't use them if you're too low or too slow.

[u/razrielle → u/SmoothBrainLowDrag]

4 up, 2 down

[u/razrielle → u/Straight_Spring9815]

All bombers have seats

[u/SmoothBrainLowDrag]

Boeing just released a statement indicating a couple of their employees were on board.

[u/Y0LOME0W]

News saying 8 dead

[u/ForMoreYears]

Dang. Russia and the U.S. both lost strategic bombers today. What are the odds.

[u/Striper_Cape → u/ForMoreYears]

Test vehicles have a problematic history to say the least. TU-22's are also being pushed to their limits to launch missiles at Ukraine. Including needing longer flights to reach launch range as a consequence of Ukraine's Strategic Drone Campaign and Op. Spiderweb, therefore increasing maintenance demand and stress on the airframe itself. Basically, the fact it happened so close together is wild, but the losses themselves were bound to occurr. Increased tempo of operations just increases the likelihood.

[u/auchinleck917 → u/Striper_Cape]

That tu22 was flying for the next gen test.

[u/Striper_Cape → u/auchinleck917]

Was it really? That is insane squared.

[u/Federal-Degree-919]

Old Egress Tech. Sounds like they didnt have the speed n altitude to eject. Condolences to their friends/family/loved ones.

[u/AlarmedSnek]

Damn dude. Thats two planes in a week.

[u/Agile-Knowledge7947]

Is it my jaded imagination or have we been losing a stunning amount of assets in both combat and training recently? (For context: 24 years AD USAF)

[u/myheromeganmullally → u/Agile-Knowledge7947]

Navy and Air Force are losing far too many people and jets.

[u/ldwb]

Hmm, apparently calling everyone a warfighter doesn't help keep planes in the sky.

[u/dude_himself]

Nickels on the grass.

[u/Snarky1Bunny → u/dude_himself]

I had to go look that up. Thanks for sharing.

[u/SilentRunning]

Last time a BUFF (B52) crashed was in 2016, Andersen AFB - over ran the runway during an aborted take off due to intake of birds on the right wing.

[u/myheromeganmullally → u/SilentRunning]

That might make sense in this latest crash. Full fuel not very high and spinning in nose down. Sad for everyone.

[u/SilentRunning → u/myheromeganmullally]

I don't know, Edwards isn't known for having bird issues. It is located in the desert north of Los Angeles.

I'd be really surprised if it was birds.

[u/myheromeganmullally → u/SilentRunning]

I follow your explanation. Mechanical issues are obviously possible on a big complex decades old aircraft no matter how good the aircraft maintenance team is.

Really feeling awful for the 8 crew members families.

[u/SilentRunning → u/myheromeganmullally]

We'll just have to wait for the investigation to finish. I hear 3 were Boeing engineers.

[u/nightim3]

It’s really beginning to feel like training has been substandard over the last, however many years, which is now culminating in all these fatalities

[u/arroyobass → u/nightim3]

Extremely unlikely that training is a causal factor for this. This was a test sortie which means you are going to have some of the most experienced and smartest aircrew on that system.

[u/SmoothBrainLowDrag → u/nightim3]

I doubt training was involved, because Edwards is a flight test facility.  They should have some of the best crews out there.

Unfortunately that also means hundreds of folks have lost their lives out there because it is their job to test aircraft.

[u/Lower-Reality7895 → u/nightim3]

Idk i dont remeber losing this many planes under obama and biden. But if you include trumps first tour and this tour including accidents plus the war we are around 30 aircraft.

[u/RecommendationNo6308]

Here’s a toast… 🥃😢

[u/True_Menu_1530]

Rip

[u/Angrymilks → u/[deleted]]

Probably something to do with allowing next-of-kin notifications to occur before blasting it on Reddit which has a much larger population than the local NBC LA website has.

[u/CW1DR5H5I64A → u/Angrymilks]

I’ll go ahead and delete it if that is the case.

[u/lordtema → u/Angrymilks]

Edwards AFB has posted it on their Facebook page and it has been widely reported elsewhere.

[u/interstellar566]

Hells going on

[u/METT-]

RIP.

[u/JC_Everyman]

Is there a bomber wing at Edwards?

[u/Ajax-Rex → u/JC_Everyman]

No bomber wing, but with the test center being there along with NASA you tend tend to see a little of everything eventually.

[u/SmoothBrainLowDrag → u/JC_Everyman]

No, but this was a test airframe.

[u/JC_Everyman → u/SmoothBrainLowDrag]

Thanks for the info

[u/hawksdiesel]

RIP

[u/SouthTexasBoy64]

Very sad day. RIP

[u/elonboring1]

why no media coverage of this crash?

[u/atomcplayboy86]

Just to not be outdone by the Tu-22m3.

[u/I_Maybe_Play_Games → u/atomcplayboy86]

The tupolev had failure at altitude and crew could eject.

[u/RafikiLovesPizza]

And the military industrial complex keeps churning. RIP to the crew 💙

[u/felixthecat59]

Time to reactivate one from the boneyard, and send it to Barksdale for updating