Air Force Names 8 Victims in Deadliest B-52 Crash Since 1982

Q: An engineer warned of a problem with the B-52 before its fatal flight. Why was this warning not heeded?

It is not yet possible to say that a warning was ignored, or why. The crash investigation is still in its early stages, and the Air Force has not identified a cause. What is known is limited. Jeromy Smith’s widow said he had told her “there was something wrong with the plane” when the flight had been delayed the previous week. That suggests there had been a technical concern, but it does not establish what the problem was, how serious it was judged to be, who knew about it, or whether it was believed to have been fixed before Monday’s flight. The Air Force has said test flights are routinely delayed for maintenance and other reasons, and it has declined to discuss specific repairs, citing operational security. Additional reporting indicates an “urgent action 107” related to the aircraft’s rudder was approved before the flight, apparently allowing the bomber to fly after a temporary corrective or deferred-maintenance action. But there is no public evidence yet showing that this decision violated procedure or overrode a formal safety objection from an engineer. Investigators are examining several possibilities, including a controllability problem, maintenance-related error, engine failure, or an issue tied to the radar modernization test configuration. Until that inquiry is complete, any claim that an engineer’s warning was not heeded would be speculative rather than established fact.

3 articles · Updated · CNN · Jun 17

Eight people killed in Monday’s B-52 crash at Edwards Air Force Base were identified Wednesday, including six military personnel and two government contractors aboard a routine test flight.
The bomber took off at 11:20 a.m. for a mission tied to a fleet modernization program and crashed shortly after departure, with investigators still working to determine the cause.
Among the dead were Boeing pilot Miles Middleton, Boeing reservist Gregory Watson, JT4 flight test engineer Christopher Rischar and Department of Defense engineer Jeromy Smith, whose families described recent anniversaries and young children left behind.
The loss is the deadliest B-52 accident since 1982, when nine crew members died in a test-training crash near Sacramento; the most recent fatal B-52 crash before this was in 2008 off Guam.