US B-52 Bomber Crashes on Guam, Crew Safe

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — "A B-52H Stratofortress preparing to take off for a Continuous Bomber Presence mission aborted on take-off and caught fire at approximately 8:30 a.m. local time [on Thursday] on the Andersen AFB [Air Force Base] flight line," the 36th Wing Public Affairs office at Andersen Air Force Base said in a statement as quoted by ABC News.

According to the release, all seven crew members are safe and no injuries have been reported.

The Guam Fire Department said the crash does not appear to be an attack.

"The military is setting up an incident command center and they have engaged our government for help. We assure the public this does not appear to be an attack, and we highly discourage anyone from spreading assumptions, or any information that does not come from civil defense or the military itself," the Guam Fire Department said in a statement as quoted by the Pacific News Center.

An investigation into the crash is currently underway.

According to the US Air Force, the B-52 bomber was deployed to Guam, a US island territory in the Western Pacific, from North Dakota, as part of the US Department of Defense bomber presence mission in the Pacific. The aircraft crew were performing a routine training mission at the time of the accident.