Originally published at: https://avweb.com/flight-safety/accidents-ntsb/tuesday-update-eight-killed-b-52-accident/
Two Boeing employees were among those on board during a radar modernization test mission.
Tragic and amazing at the same time. Still doing operational test flights for new equipment on a 75-year-old aircraft. We really used to build them right.
A plane does not crash on takeoff, unless it has a fatal defect not picked up on routine maintenance or preflight.
Very much symptoms of a large load shift after T/O causing an unrecoverable departure from the CG envelope. Hopefully, it wasn’t loaded wrong.
Similar to the National Airlines Baghram crash. I, however, am almost always wrong when it comes to causes of accidents.
Rip to the crew and passengers.
Given that the debris field is contained in a single location and the fact the plane made a 180° turn prior to crash, the accident may be a classic stall/spin due to failed Impossible Turn.
A FOD or Bird can take out both engines in a B52 because of the pod arrangement where an uncontained failure in one engine affects its brother. Un-contained engine failures can happen sometime after an engine ingests a foreign object and forming a small crack that fatigues over time usually on high power.
I’m assuming you’re making an exception for THE MOST COMMON underlying cause of accidents – pilot error. Otherwise, your statement is absurd.