BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhuanet) -- At least three airmen were killed and an intensive ocean search is underway for three remaining crewman from the B-52 bomber that crashed off the Pacific island of Guam on Monday, the U.S. military said.

    Three vessels including a destroyer, three helicopters, two F-15 fighter jets and a Navy P-3 Orion aircraft based in Japan were involved in the search, which covered roughly 3,000 square miles of the Pacific, said U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. John Titchen.

    "We've basically saturated that area," said Titchen, who called search conditions "ideal," with light winds, calm seas and good visibility.

    The B-52 bomber was en route from Guam's Andersen Air Force Base to conduct a flyover in a parade on another part of the island when it crashed around 9:45 a.m. Monday about 30 miles northwest of Apra Harbor, the U.S Air Force said.

    The three crew members were wearing their life vests when their bodies were recovered.

    "This is a challenging operation when we lose people we work with on a day-to-day basis, so we're doing the best that we can to cover that area as quickly as we can," Titchen said.

    The plane that crashed Monday was based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and deployed to Guam as part of the Department of Defense's continuous bomber presence mission in the Pacific. The Air Force has been rotating B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers through Guam since 2004 to boost the U.S. security presence in the Asia-Pacific region while other U.S. forces in the area have been sent to the Middle East.

    According to the Air Force's website, the B-52 Stratofortress has been the backbone of the manned strategic bomber force for the United States for more than four decades. It is capable of dropping or launching the widest array of weapons in the U.S. inventory, including cluster bombs and precision guided missiles.

    (Agencies)