A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber crashed on takeoff on Monday at Edwards Air Force Base in ‌Southern California’s Mojave Desert, bursting into flames and killing all eight crew members aboard, Air Force officials said.

The eight-engine, jet-powered aircraft, built to carry a wide array of nuclear and conventional bombs, was on a routine test mission when it crashed on the runway at Edwards just after leaving the ground, Air Force Colonel James Hayes said ​at a press conference hours later, Reuters reported.

A towering pall of black smoke billowing from the crash site was visible for miles immediately ​after the accident.

He said the “mixed crew” aboard the aircraft consisted of government civilians, government contractors and uniformed military personnel. ⁠Aerospace giant Boeing, which designed and built the plane, said two of its employees were among the dead.

The flight was intended to support ​a radar modernization program, Hayes told reporters. The cause of the crash was unknown and under investigation, he added.

Air Force officials did not name the ​victims, saying they were still in the process of notifying their next of kin.

Aerial video footage of the crash scene, about 100 miles (161 km) north of Los Angeles, showed a charred, smoldering patch of the desert floor larger than a football field as an emergency vehicle was seen driving along the site’s perimeter. From a distance, ​there were no large pieces of debris readily visible in the footage.

Hayes said the crash was quickly “deemed to be unsurvivable.”

Because of damage to the ​runway, he said, “we’re grounding all operations at Edwards Air Force Base” through at least Tuesday, adding that no operations beyond the base would be suspended.

Edwards, a sprawling ‌test ⁠flight facility established in the 1930s around a dry lake bed, occupies about 481 square miles (1,245 square km) of the Mojave desert, making it the Air Force’s largest airfield.

Its experimental aviation legacy includes the flight by Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 aircraft that broke the sound barrier in 1947, test flights of the X-15 aircraft and the first landings of NASA’s space shuttles.

BACKBONE OF BOMBER FORCE

The B-52 Stratofortress, a long-range, subsonic aircraft built ​to carry up to 70,000 pounds (31,750 ​kg) of weapons and supplies, has ⁠long served as the backbone of the U.S. crewed strategic bomber force, according to the military.

The swept-wing aircraft is capable of unleashing the widest range of weapons in the U.S. inventory, from cluster bombs and gravity ​bombs to precision-guided missiles and nuclear warheads, at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet (15,166 m), according to an ​Air Force fact ⁠sheet. Its combat range extends more than 8,000 miles without refueling.

Monday’s incident marked the first crash of a B-52 Stratofortress since the same type of bomber crashed on the island of Guam in May 2016, according to the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives, a Geneva-based organization that collects global aviation accident data. ⁠All seven ​crew members aboard that aircraft survived.

Only H models of the B-52 remain in the ​Air Force inventory.

The aircraft involved in Monday’s crash was assigned to the 412th Test Wing, which is based at Edwards. Most B-52s are stationed in North Dakota and Louisiana.

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations meet at a ​French lakeside resort on Monday shortly after the US and Iran said they had reached a preliminary deal to end their war, Reuters reported.

Discussing ‌next steps on Iran will be one of several issues the global leaders will wrestle with during the June 15-17 summit, which will also seek common ground on the war in Ukraine, tackling global economic imbalances and sourcing critical minerals outside of the dominant supplier China.

US President Donald Trump is due to arrive in Evian-les-Bains on Monday for the gathering ​at a time when global leaders are increasingly wary of the United States, although French officials were glad to have secured his ​presence after he left last year’s G7 summit in Canada early.

Many G7 leaders have been directly impacted by Trump’s ⁠volatile moves on the global stage that have upended the Middle East, global trade and diplomacy. His actions have led to larger questions about the ​US commitment to the post-war global order it helped establish.

Trump is due to meet with Middle Eastern leaders and attend a working session with Ukrainian President ​Volodymyr Zelenskiy during the summit.

The Zelenskiy meeting on Tuesday comes at a time when Russian advances in Ukraine have slowed and Ukraine seeks more military funding from its allies, read the report.

Zelenskiy’s hand has improved since Trump famously told him in the Oval Office last year: “You don’t have the cards”.

But he may find greater U.S. support elusive as Trump prioritises drawing ​a line under then Iran conflict, which has dented his support domestically.

G7 leaders will be keen to learn the details of the US-Iran ​deal. A memorandum of understanding is scheduled to be officially signed on Friday in Switzerland but precise terms were not immediately known.

Trump said the Strait of Hormuz, a major ‌shipping route ⁠for global oil and gas supplies that Iran has effectively shut down for months, would open on Friday, and that he had ordered the end of the US blockade of Iranian ports.

In a statement, the secretariat of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said war and military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, would end permanently starting on Monday night.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said a more expansive agreement would be negotiated during a 60-day ceasefire ​period, including sanctions relief for Iran. Iran’s ​nuclear program will be addressed ⁠in those later talks, sources had previously told Reuters.

The United Arab Emirates, directly harmed by the war, and key mediators Qatar and Egypt will also attend the G7.

Trump will be greeted on Monday by French President Emmanuel Macron, ​for whom this summit serves as a diplomatic capstone for his second and final term in office, which ​draws to a close ⁠next year.

Macron is increasingly seen as a lame duck domestically but he still has pull on the global stage, and was able to get Trump to agree to a glitzy dinner at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday.

Macron has sought to use France’s presidency of the G7 to push for action on global macroeconomic ⁠imbalances, a ​longstanding US concern, before Washington takes the chair of the G20 this year and the ​G7 next. France has framed the issue as a shared responsibility in that China overproduces, the United States overconsumes and Europe underinvests, Reuters reported.

Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea have been invited to ​the G7 to join the discussion, while Macron has urged China to boost its own consumption.

U.S. and Iranian officials said they had agreed on a framework to end their war, halt the U.S. blockade of Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a preliminary pact that sent ​oil prices falling but leaves the fate of Iran’s nuclear program to further negotiations, Reuters reported.

“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform around ‌5:30 p.m. ET local time in Washington (2130 GMT) on Sunday. His post came shortly after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has served as a mediator, announced a deal had been struck early on Monday local time.

The memorandum of understanding is scheduled to be officially signed on Friday in Switzerland.

The precise terms were not immediately known. Sharif said in a post on X that the pact called for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

Lebanon has been a sticking point in negotiations, with Israel and Hezbollah ignoring calls from Trump and others to ​stop their attacks on each other in recent weeks.

In a statement, the secretariat of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said war and military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, would end permanently starting on Monday night.

Iran’s deputy foreign ​minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said a more expansive agreement would be negotiated during a 60-day ceasefire period, including sanctions relief for Iran.

The fate of Iran’s nuclear program, another thorny issue, will also ⁠be addressed in those later talks, sources previously told Reuters.

There was no immediate reaction to the announcement from Israel, which has said it was not party to the U.S.-Iran talks.

Trump said the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping route for ​global oil and gas supplies that Iran has effectively shut down for months, would open on Friday, and that he had ordered the end of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, read the report.

“Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” Trump wrote.

Oil ​prices fell on the news. Brent crude futures fell 4% in early trading on Monday, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate slid more than 4.6%. Stock markets in Asia jumped.

Former Biden administration State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Trump had made important concessions to Iran to achieve the status quo that existed before he launched the war.

“We have no assurances the nuclear program will ever be addressed, but Iran has shown the world it can take the global economy hostage and get something from the U.S. in return,” said Miller.

Thousands of people have been killed, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, ​since U.S. and Israeli forces first attacked Iran on February 28. Iran has struck Israel and Gulf states hosting U.S. bases and has effectively blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, pushing up global energy prices. U.S. forces have blocked Iranian ports in response.

The ​Iran war has become a political liability at home for Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress, with public opinion polls showing Americans deeply frustrated by rising gas prices ahead of November’s midterm elections. But Trump has also faced pressure from members of his own party ‌who insist that ⁠Iran’s nuclear program must be completely shut down.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Iran hawk, praised the deal but said he would be “watching closely” the coming negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.

“Under our law, any nuclear deal with Iran will be sent to Congress for review and a vote,” he said. “Congratulations to all in getting us to this point.”

During his first term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 multilateral Iran deal, negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama, that lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program, including international inspections.

Iran responded by ramping up its enrichment of uranium, producing more than 400 kg (around 900 pounds) of material at close to bomb-grade purity. The eventual fate of that uranium is likely to be a key negotiating point during ​the upcoming talks.

The agreement was sealed despite an ​Israeli strike on Lebanon on Sunday that drew criticism ⁠from both Iran and Trump.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has differed with Trump over American demands that Israel curb its military action in Lebanon to allow the United States to reach a deal with Iran.

Israel has said it will retain freedom of operations in Lebanon, while Iran has made a full ceasefire there an important component of its demands.

Trump updated Netanyahu on the progress toward ​a peace deal during a phone call on Sunday, Israel’s N12 reported, citing a senior official.

In an interview with the New York Times, Trump called Netanyahu “a very difficult guy” and ​argued the Israeli leader should thank ⁠him for saving Israel from a nuclear-armed Iran.

Leaders outside the Middle East, who have kept a wary eye on the conflict, welcomed the announcement.

In a joint statement, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy said they were prepared to lift sanctions on Iran in response to “clear, verifiable steps” to limit its nuclear program.

“We are clear that toll-free freedom of navigation must now be restored in the Strait of Hormuz,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. “Iran must never have a nuclear weapon.”

Before the deal was announced, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that, ⁠under the terms of ​the draft, the United States would agree to release $25 billion of frozen Iranian assets. The Trump administration has previously said any release of Iranian money ​would only take place once Iran has fulfilled certain conditions under a peace deal, Reuters reported.

A U.S. official, also speaking before the announcement, said the agreement would ultimately lead to the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, with its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to be destroyed and removed. The senior Iranian official said the draft ​deal would allow Iran, which denies seeking a nuclear bomb, to dilute its enriched uranium inside the country.