2008 Guam B - 52 crash The 2008 Guam B - 52 crash was a fatal crash of a United States Air Force ( USAF ) B - 52H Stratofortress on 21 July 2008 . The aircraft , operating out of Andersen Air Force Base , crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a training flight approximately northwest of Apra Harbor , Guam . The training flight was to include participation in a local municipal celebration of Liberation Day in Hagåtña . All six crew members aboard the aircraft were killed and the aircraft was destroyed . An investigation by the USAF determined that the crash was likely caused by an improper stabilizer trim setting . The investigation was unable to determine conclusively what had caused the horizontal stabilizer trim to be set improperly , but theorized that the most likely cause was an aircraft system malfunction . Crash . On 21 July 2008 , a United States Air Force ( USAF ) B - 52H Stratofortress crashed into the Pacific Ocean approximately northwest of Apra Harbor , Guam , after taking off from Andersen Air Force Base . The aircraft , named " Louisiana Fire " and with the mission call sign of " RAIDR 21 " , was about to participate in a flyover for the Liberation Day parade in Hagåtña . It crashed at 9 : 55 am ( local time ) , 20 July , five minutes before they were scheduled to fly over the parade . Air traffic control radar images indicated that the aircraft appeared to be descending rapidly before disappearing from radar scopes at about of altitude . On 23 July 2008 , the USAF announced that there were no survivors , and that the rescue effort had turned to a recovery mission for four still - missing members of the crew of six . Aircraft and crew . The bomber , assigned to the 20th Bomb Squadron , was , with its crew , on temporary duty at Andersen as part of a four - month rotation . The bomber ' s unit had replaced Northrop Grumman B - 2 Spirit bombers which had been grounded following the loss of one of them on 23 February that year . The crew of RAIDR 21 were : Major Christopher M . Cooper ( aircraft commander ) , Major Brent D . Williams , ( radar navigator ) , Captain Michael K . Dodson , ( co - pilot ) , First Lieutenant Joshua D . Shepherd ( navigator ) , First Lieutenant Robert D . Gerren ( electronic warfare officer ) , and Colonel George Martin . Martin , a flight surgeon , was the deputy commander of 36th Medical Group at Andersen . He was aboard in the Number 6 crew position to ride along for the Liberation Day " Fly Over " . The rest of the crew members were from the 20th Bomb Squadron or the 96th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale Air Force Base , Louisiana . While bodies and remains were recovered from the area , Dodson ' s and Gerren ' s remains were not recovered . A memorial service for the crew was held at Arlington National Cemetery on 14 November 2008 . Recovery and investigation . The USAF worked with the United States Navy to map and retrieve the aircraft ' s wreckage from the ocean floor . The wreckage did not include a flight data recorder because the aircraft was not equipped with one . The accident investigation board concluded that the horizontal stabilizer was set at a down angle during the training mission . The cause of the mishap was an improper stabilizer trim setting . Due to the lack of available evidence , no surviving crew members , no radio calls , no other witnesses and lack of a data recorder , the accident investigation board was unable to determine by clear and convincing evidence why the stabilizer trim was mispositioned . The investigation board felt that the most likely cause of this runaway stabilizer trim was a system malfunction that would have led the stabilizer trim to improperly run in a nose - down direction . The improper trim setting occurred somewhere between 14 , 000 and and caused a rapid and uncontrollable descent the experienced crew could not overcome . Based on the descent profile of the mishap aircraft , there was only 34 seconds from the presumed start of the mishap sequence until impact . The board president , Brigadier General Mark Barrett explained that two factors led to the crash . The first was the " combination of low altitude with a descending left turn of the aircraft " . The second was " the late recognition of the serious nature of the situation by the crew " . He added , " any experienced air crew could have found it difficult to recognize , assess and recover from the rapidly developing situation involving the stabilizer trim setting . " The USAF also conducted a separate safety investigation into the mishap but did not publicly release its findings .