B-2 Spirit Crash On February 23, 2008

Inside the Most Expensive Plane Crash in History: How America’s Most Secretive Stealth Bomber Ended Up in Flames

On February 23, 2008, at approximately 10:30 a.m. local time on the island of Guam, one of the most powerful aircraft in the world was in deep trouble. Moments after takeoff, the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber known as Spirit of Kansas baffled the two pilots in the plane’s cockpit as it began to inexplicably descend back to Earth. The crew struggled in an attempt to regain control of the doomed bomber, but its left wing clipped the runway and both pilots were ejected—one suffered a spinal injury, but thankfully, there were no casualties.

The incident was over in a matter of seconds, but it left behind a $2 billion receipt, making it the most expensive airplane crash in history. A B-2, capable of leveling entire cities and wreaking apocalyptic destruction, had been brought down by nothing more than a simple change in the weather. The crash would prove that, despite all of humankind’s power, Mother Nature always has the last word.

Everyone involved knew the flight was going to be a long one. The B-2 bomber known as Spirit of Kansas had spent four months on the island territory of Guam. As part of U.S. Pacific Command’s Bomber Forward Presence mission, four B-2s had been deployed to Andersen Air Force Base as a deterrent to North Korea and China. For the four bomber crews and the maintainers that had followed them from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, February 23 was the day they got to go home.

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