SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A Korean navy aircraft carrying four crew members crashed during a training exercise on Thursday, resulting in the deaths of at least two individuals, with paramedics currently searching for others, according to the navy.
The P-3 patrol aircraft departed from a base in the southeastern city of Pohang at 1:43 PM but went down for reasons that remain unclear, as stated by the Navy.
Cho Youngsang, a naval officer in charge of the search efforts, mentioned in a televised briefing that teams were preparing to recover the bodies of two crew members and transport them to a nearby hospital. He added that the search for the other two crew members is ongoing.
No immediate civilian casualties have been reported on the ground. The Navy announced that a task force has been established to investigate the cause of the crash, and all P-3 flights have been temporarily halted.
Pohang’s emergency services reported that rescuers and fire trucks were dispatched to the site after local residents indicated that an unidentified aircraft had crashed on a hill near an apartment complex, causing a fire.
The extent of the fire and its damage remains unclear. The Yonhap news agency published images showing flames flickering amidst black-gray smoke enveloping nearby trees, with firefighters and at least one water truck active at the crash scene.
In December, a Jeju Airlines passenger plane crashed at Muang International Airport in southern South Korea, resulting in the death of all but 2 of the 181 people onboard. This incident marked one of the deadliest events in South Korea’s aviation history.
Source: apnews.com