Wednesday · November 11, 2026
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B-52 stalls and explodes at Fairchild; all four crew members are dead

Lt. Col. Holland banked Czar 52 past 60 degrees at 250 feet during a retirement flight, and the aircraft clips power lines before hitting the ground.

Col. Robert Wolff's retirement flight was supposed to end with a water dousing on the tarmac, his wife and friends watching from the flight line. Instead, on June 24, 1994, Lt. Col. Arthur "Bud" Holland banked the B-52H Czar 52 into a tight 360-degree turn around Fairchild Air Force Base's control tower at roughly 250 feet — airspeed bleeding to 145 knots, bank angle past 60 degrees. The aircraft stalled, clipped power lines, and exploded on impact, killing all four crew members. Holland's aggressive flying had been documented for years. No one had ever written it down…

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