The eight crew members of the B-52 Stratofortress bomber of the United States Air Force have died after the aircraft crashed “immediately after” taking off on a test mission carried out at Edwards Air Force Base, in California, according to military authorities.
“Today, Edwards Air Force Base suffered a terrible tragedy and we lost eight brave Americans. This accident is considered fatal,” said Colonel James Hayes, deputy commander of the base’s host unit, in statements to the media.
As detailed, “it was a B-52 that was in the initial takeoff phase supporting the radar modernization program,” in what he defined as a local test mission. “It took off and immediately afterwards crashed and burned,” Hayes said.
“After reviewing the images of the accident, it has been determined that it was an irrecoverable accident with no possibility of survival,” explained the colonel, stating that, in the heat of the events, the base authorities have begun the process of notifying the family of the deceased soldiers of what happened.
In this sense, he detailed that “it was a mixed crew made up of military personnel, public officials and government contractors who provided support to this test mission”, although he stressed that he would only provide such details once notification had been made to the families of the victims of the incident.
Likewise, he stressed that at the moment, the Air Force has “no indication as to what the cause” of the accident was, before presenting a timeline of up to half a year.
“At this time, we are going to establish an interim safety board to gather the initial facts, which will lead to a safety investigation board that will analyze the root causes. Once this is complete, which will take approximately 30 days, it will move to an accident investigation board, which will determine all the information we can disclose to the public and the next parties involved,” explained Hayes, before highlighting that “this process can take up to six months.”
His words came shortly after the base’s public relations office indicated that the “first indications” of the investigation indicated that the accident had been “fatal” in a statement in which it added that “emergency personnel are at the scene and authorities are working to locate all occupants.”
For his part, the Secretary of the Air Force, Troy Meink, has been “deeply saddened by the loss of eight lives” and wanted to honor the work of the “airmen, civilians and contractors who work every day” in favor of the operations of the military branch.
