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by mrandish 5 days ago
I hope the crew are okay, but from the look of the aftermath and the fact there's no mention of the crew yet, I assume not all survived. Shortly after takeoff is one of the most challenging times for an incident. Low altitude, low-speed and full fuel means things can go very bad, very fast.
4 comments
Recurecur 5 days ago
It’s been confirmed that the entire crew perished, and sadly the max complement of eight was aboard.

RIP!

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yieldcrv 5 days ago
As a betting man… this is not survivable
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zardo 5 days ago
Just after takeoff is the worst time to have a problem. Hopefully they had the minimum crew. Also hopefully it wasn't carrying a nuke and/or it wasn't compromised.
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Haven880 5 days ago
They have maximum crew possible which is 8. All confirmed dead.
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TacticalCoder 5 days ago
there are sadly all too many cases like this: the Concorde's last flight comes to mind. Just horrible.

RIP

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throwaway85825 5 days ago
B-52 crew has to bail out, no ejection option.
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Jtsummers 5 days ago
It has an ejection system, but some go up and some go down depending on their position in the aircraft. The two navigator seats eject downwards, they would not have had a chance. Given when the accident occurred (just after takeoff), and that there's not yet been any report on the crew, it's unlikely the other crew managed to eject.
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runjake 5 days ago
You are correct. Typically, if the pilots run into a critical emergency and have the chance, they'll try to pitch the aircraft upwards to give the navs a chance of survival after ejection, but it's pretty rare that's feasible.

I don't know how it is anymore, but it apparently used to be an unspoken rule that if the downstairs crew couldn't eject and survive, the upstairs crew wouldn't either.

As to why the ejection system is like this? Because the B-52 was originally designed as a high-altitude bomber.

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Steve44 5 days ago
The Avro Vulcan was similar, the two cockpit crew had ejector seats but the three others didn't.

There were a few crashes where the cockpit crew ejected, this being one at London Heathrow.

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1956/dec/...

> It would be unjust to the pilot and co-pilot were I not to make it clear, in conclusion, that it was their duty to eject from the aircraft when they did. I am satisfied that there could have been no hope of controlling the aircraft after the initial impact. In these circumstances, it was the duty of the captain to give the order to abandon the aircraft and of all those who were on board to obey it if they were able to do so. Both the pilot and co-pilot realised when they gave their orders that, owing to the low altitude, the other occupants had no chance of escape, and they considered that their own chances were negligible

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