Everyone Knew This B-52 Was Going to Crash

For three years, crews at Fairchild Air Force Base watched one B-52 pilot break the rules: over an air show crowd, in an 80-degree climb, a few feet above a ridgeline. They reported him. They even caught him on video. Nothing happened to him. On June 24, 1994, the squadron commander who had tried to have him grounded climbed into the seat beside him. This is the story of Czar 52, the 1994 Fairchild AFB B-52 crash: the seven warnings that came before it, the 18 minutes of the final flight, and the U.S. Air Force investigation that traced the cause far beyond the cockpit, to the commanders who had been warned again and again. ▶ Watch next: The Airline That Hired Two Fired Pilots to Fly    • The Airline That Hired Two Fired Pilots to...   ⏱ CHAPTERS 00:00 250 feet, past 90 degrees 01:07 The best pilot in the wing 03:04 A license to steal 05:11 The tape 07:37 Three feet 10:36 The boss in the air 13:38 Eighteen minutes 15:56 Who knew 17:30 The last domino 📌 SOURCES & CREDITS • U.S. Air Force AFR 110-14 Accident Investigation Board testimony, as compiled in Maj. Tony Kern, "Darker Shades of Blue: A Case Study of Failed Leadership" (1995). This channel is not affiliated with the author. • Air Force News Service release on the May 1995 court-martial; Wikipedia, "1994 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash" (facts). • HistoryLink: the June 20, 1994 Fairchild hospital shooting. Pacific Air Forces: findings on the July 28, 2010 C-17 accident at Elmendorf AFB. • The photograph of Czar 52 moments before the crash and the photo of B-52H 61-0026: U.S. Air Force (public domain). • B-52, KC-135, C-17, A-10 and Fairchild footage: U.S. Department of Defense / DVIDS (public domain). Photos: U.S. Air Force / Wikimedia Commons (public domain). • "Aerial - Fairchild AFB 01": Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0. "Fairchild AFB and Spokane": Dicklyon, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons). • Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain). Maps: Natural Earth (public domain). Turn path placed from a public-domain crash overview diagram. • Stock video: Pexels. Sound effects: Mixkit. • Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... : "Day of Chaos", "Magistar", "Big Drumming", "Crossing the Chasm", "Spider Eyes", "Tyrant", "Private Reflection", "Shadowlands 3 - Machine", "I Can Feel it Coming", "The Pyre", "SCP-x5x (Outer Thoughts)", "Ossuary 3 - Words", "Send for the Horses", "Mountain Emperor". • Footage that is not of the 1994 events is labelled FILE FOOTAGE or FILE PHOTO on screen. Diagrams are illustrations based on the investigation and the testimony. Narration uses a synthetic voice. • In memory of Col. Robert Wolff, Lt. Col. Kenneth Huston, Lt. Col. Mark McGeehan and Lt. Col. Arthur Holland. #B52 #AirForce #AviationSafety