An engineer marking his wedding anniversary, service members and Boeing employees among victims of B-52 bomber crash
Originally Published: 17 JUN 26 13:34 ET
By Hanna Park, Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN
(CNN) — A crew of military service members and government contractors were among the eight people killed when a B-52 Stratofortress crashed shortly after takeoff Monday in Southern California.
The mammoth military plane took off at 11:20 a.m. on a routine test mission from Edwards Air Force Base, the storied desert base about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The plane was carrying eight people, though it typically flies with a crew of five, and was supporting a program to modernize the aging fleet.
The Air Force released the names of all eight victims Wednesday, after notifying their relatives: Col. Gregory Watson, 53; Lt. Col. Gabriel Estrella, 40; retired Lt. Col. Miles Middleton, 50; Maj. Alexander Davis, 34; Maj. Robert Dee, 40; Maj. Brad Hovey, 35; Christopher Rischar, 41; and Jeromy Smith, 32.
Middleton worked for Boeing, and Watson, an Air Force reservist, was at his civilian job with Boeing at the time of the crash. Rischar, a flight test engineer, was an employee of defense contracting firm JT4.
“These Airmen were more than coworkers. They were friends, mentors, teammates and valued members of our Edwards and Air Force family,” Col. Thomas Tauer, 412th Test Wing Commander, told workers and families at the base, according to statement shared by the Air Force.
“The loss of Miles and Greg is deeply felt across our teams, and our hearts remain with their families, loved ones and those who worked with them,” Boeing said in a statement.
Smith, a civilian flight test engineer for the Department of Defense, had worked at Edwards for 10 years and was the father of two young sons – a 2-year-old and an infant just 4 months old, his wife, Lauren Smith, told CNN affiliate KBAK/KBFX.
“He’s a hero. He is someone that people look up to, and just an all-around amazing person,” his wife told the station. “He died doing what he loved.”
The couple had marked their fourth wedding anniversary days before the crash, she said.
The deaths mark the deadliest B-52 crash since 1982, when nine crew members were killed in test training at Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento. The most recent fatal B-52 accident before Monday came in 2008, when six Air Force personnel died after their bomber crashed into the Pacific off Guam.
The-CNN-Wire
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