B-52 bomber crash kills 8 at Mojave Desert air force base

A B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff Monday morning at a US Air Force base in Southern California's Mojave Desert, killing eight people, according to AP.

Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of an aircraft. Black smoke rose from a large swath of charred desert at Edwards Air Force Base near what appeared to be a runway, with emergency vehicles nearby. The military hasn't said whether the bomber was armed.

The plane crashed at around 11:20am, the military said on the social platform X. By the afternoon, the airfield remained closed and all inbound aircraft were being diverted.

Non-commercial visitor passes for the base were suspended "to allow the installation to focus entirely on emergency response operations," officials said in a statement.