B-2A “Death 11” over the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena.

On January 1, 2020, a U.S. Air Force B-2A Spirit performed the traditional Rose Parade flyover.

The aircraft, flying as DEATH11, launched with the spare Spirit using radio callsign DEATH 12 from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, home of the 509th Bomb Wing, and was supported by a KC-10 tanker, c/s XTNDR30.

Our friend Mark Holtzman, a photographer and pilot, founder of West Coast Aerial Photography, a company specialising in aerial photography based in Los Angeles, was once again airborne over Pasadena in his Cessna 206 flying some 2,500 feet above the B-2 to take the traditional air-to-air images of the stealth bomber as it flew over the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, for the 106th Rose Bowl Game that pit the Big Ten Conference runner-up University of Wisconsin-Madison Badgers against the Pac-12 Conference champion University of Oregon Ducks.

Holtzman (and a co-pilot who can handle the plane as he shoots) was flying a pre-approved route at 4,000 feet, well above the 3,000 feet AGL (Above Ground Level) ceiling of the TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) for the Rose Parade. It’s not easy to get the vertical view in the exact moment the B-2 overflies the stadium, but Mark has become an expert as his galleries at www.markholtzman.com show: indeed, Holtzman has been able to take some fantastic shots of the Rose Bowl flyovers from a plane such as the November 2018 flyover of two VFA-2 F/A-18F Super Hornets at USC vs UCLA Game; or the 2011 Rose Bowl flyover performed by U.S. Navy F/A-18s out of Lemoore; the 2009 Rose Bowl flyover by another B-2; the one of 2016, the one from 2017, and the one from 2018 and 2019.

Thank you!! It takes a lot of preparation and some luck (last year the wind closed the window on my just at the B2 entered the stadium). Definitely a team effort too — Mark Holtzman (@westcoastaerial) January 2, 2020

You can buy prints of the latest and previous flyovers at Mark Holtzman website here.





