Two Boeing Workers Among Eight Killed in B-52 Crash at Edwards Air Force Base

Boeing said Thursday that two of the eight people killed when a U.S. Air Force B-52 crashed shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base in California were civilians employed by the company, not military personnel. The bomber went down the day before, near Los Angeles, triggering an emergency response as thick black smoke rose from wreckage scattered across the desert airfield.

The B-52 is the oldest aircraft in the U.S. Air Force fleet. It entered service in 1955 as America’s main nuclear bomber during the Cold War, and over the years it was adapted to carry conventional weapons, missiles and bombs. The aircraft can carry 32 tons of ordnance and has a range of about 14,000 kilometers, extendable through aerial refueling. Of the 744 built, 76 remain in service, and they are expected to fly at least until 2050.

The Pentagon is spending $9 billion to replace the bomber’s eight aging engines with modern Rolls-Royce engines, a move intended to cut fuel use and operating costs and increase range by 20% to 30%. At the same time, all B-52s are to receive new radar and electronic warfare systems to improve survivability against threats from the air and ground.

The crashed aircraft was the first to have the new electronic warfare system installed. Investigators are still examining the cause of the accident, and there is no certainty the upgrade was related, though one possibility is that installation work may have caused faults in the aircraft.