B-52 crash victim Jeromy Smith welcomed a son just before deadly California bomber accident

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: One of the eight people killed when a B-52 Stratofortress bomber crashed shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base in California had recently welcomed a new baby, adding a deeply personal tragedy to one of the deadliest US military aviation accidents in recent years.

The aircraft went down during a routine test mission on Monday, June 15, killing all eight people aboard, including military personnel, government civilians, contractors, and two Boeing employees.

Victim's family had just celebrated birth of a child

NBC News reported that one of the victims had recently become a parent, welcoming a new baby shortly before boarding the flight that ended in tragedy. The revelation has underscored the personal loss behind the accident, as families across the military and aerospace communities grapple with the deaths of their loved ones.

“My husband just went back to work. He was there for just a week,” Lauren Smith said about her husband, Jeromy Smith.

Jeromy Smith was a civilian flight test engineer for the Defense Department and worked on projects at Edwards Air Force Base for 10 years, Lauren Smith said.

The Smiths have two children: Fletcher, 2 years old, and Fallon, who was born four months ago.

“We did not see this coming,” she said.

Jeromy Smith had received the Aerial Achievement Medal for flying medium- to high-risk sorties, and he was proud of that, Lauren Smith said.

But for the six years Lauren Smith has been with her husband, she said, she has never felt unsafe.

Monday’s flight had originally been scheduled for Friday but had been pushed back, she said.

“They go through tons of safety things before they even take off. And I know specifically on Friday they had — they were gonna fly on Friday, and they just kept pushing it back and pushing it back,” she said. “And I don’t think that plane was ready to take off, and I’m so sad it did.”

Lauren Smith said the last text she sent her husband was “I love you.”

“He worked really hard for this country, and he loved this country so much,” she said. “I know he is just a speck in this world of people, but he truly, truly loved this country, and he would do anything for this country. And he left a legacy with his kids. And I hope that they — they know that their father was a hero and that he loved them very much.”

Investigation turns to aircraft and test mission

The B-52 was assigned to a routine test flight connected to the Air Force's radar modernization program, part of a long-term effort to keep the Cold War-era bomber in service into the 2050s.

Investigators are now examining the aircraft's flight data, maintenance records and mission profile to determine what caused the crash.

The Defense Department and Edwards Air Force Base have not released the names of those killed in Monday’s crash, which happened shortly after the plane took off around 11:20 a.m.

Members of the military, military civilians and government contractors were on board, officials have said. Boeing confirmed that two of its employees were killed.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The aircraft was on a routine test mission supporting a “radar modernization program,” Air Force Col. James Hayes told reporters Monday.

An initial gathering of facts can take up to 30 days, and then an accident investigation board will review the crash, Hayes said. It can take six months before the information is gathered and released to families and the public, he said.

As investigators continue their work, tributes have begun pouring in for the eight victims, including the new parent whose family had only recently celebrated the arrival of a child before their lives changed forever.