A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Monday evening, the military confirmed. The fate of the crew and the cause of the crash have not yet been released.
The U.S. Air Force has confirmed that a B-52 Stratofortress crashed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Monday evening. The confirmation follows a chain of Israeli media reports earlier in the evening, beginning at 22:18 Jerusalem, which initially described a B-52 crash shortly after takeoff. Those early accounts were attributed to a single source and lacked independent corroboration; the location was initially given only as 'in the United States' before narrowing to near Edwards AFB and then to the base itself. The current update adds the military's on-record confirmation of the specific location, though the fate of the crew and the cause of the crash have not been released.
At 22:18 Jerusalem, The Zioneer reported a B-52 exploding over the Mojave desert moments after takeoff, citing the source 0404 News. Within the same minute, a separate Israeli media report described a crash 'shortly after takeoff' with crew status unknown. By 22:18, a military source cited by Barak Betesh (i24NEWS) confirmed the crash occurred moments after takeoff from Edwards AFB. The timeline and location details have since converged into a single event: a B-52 crashing at the base, confirmed by the military. The earlier report of a mid-air explosion, from a separate source and without military confirmation, has not been reconciled with the confirmed crash sequence.
As The Zioneer reported on Wednesday, June 10, a US Navy P-8A Poseidon landed in Bahrain after its transponder was miscoded as a B-52 — an incident unrelated to the crash but reflecting the operational profile of the B-52 fleet. Separately, on that same day, a USAF B-52 reportedly turned off its transponder en route to the Middle East; that aircraft was operating on a different continent and is not involved in the California incident.
What remains open: the crew's condition and the crash's cause are still unconfirmed. The earlier report of a mid-air explosion — from a different Israeli-based source — has not been verified or explained, and it is not yet clear whether it describes a separate aircraft or a mischaracterized element of the same event.
7 developments
- StrongUS Navy P-8A Poseidon lands in Bahrain after B-52 transponder miscode
- StrongUS B-52 bomber transponder reportedly turned off en route to the Middle East
- StrongEight US strategic bombers land in Middle East from UK and Germany bases overnight
- ConfirmedMultiple B-52 bombers take off from Diego Garcia toward Iran, reports say
Source and signal
- Internal intake