Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Hogarth01 1638 days ago
On Google Earth you can use the timeline feature to actually see when the imagery was captured (or at least uploaded?). The plane sitting near the hangers was from a capture in May 2016. Google Earth currently shows several newer captures, including one from September 2021. The current one from September 2021 is actually far more interesting in my opinion. In it, you can see a B2 sitting in a field about a quarter up the runway (38°43'27.63"N 93°32'54.86"W) with stuff scattered all around it and trucks sitting on the runway. https://i.imgur.com/lh1hkWN.png
2 comments

Ah very interesting! I saw the skid marks on the runway north of the plane and was wondering if it was an emergency landing situation considering that it was just on the side of the runway. Pretty cool to read the article and get the other half of the story.
I'm very intrigued as to what is going on here - it almost looks as if it veered off the runway. Anyone got any suggestions?
The op of this thread replied to my comment with a military.com article, and in that article there is a link to an article on thedrive, https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42392/damaged-b-2-spir...

"According to sources, the B-2 experienced a hydraulic failure in flight and had its port main landing gear collapse during landing, sending it off the runway with its wing dug into the ground. We cannot confirm that this was the case at this time, but the satellite image above does concur with the gear collapse/wing down aspect of the incident. While it is possible the aircraft was rolled off the runway after the fact, this is unlikely, especially considering its wing-down disposition. The damage to the aircraft also remains unknown. "

Ouch, that sounds expensive! Thanks for the follow-up.