United States | At least 16 die in military plane crash in rural Mississippi
A U.S. military plane used for refueling crashed into a soybean field in rural Mississippi, killing at least 16 people aboard in a fiery wreck and spreading debris for miles, officials said.
Leflore County Emergency Management Agency Director Frank Randle told reporters at a briefing yesterday [Macau time] that 16 bodies had been recovered after the KC-130 spiraled into the ground about 135 kilometers north of Jackson in the Mississippi Delta. A witness said some bodies were found more than a mile from the crash site.
Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Burns said in a statement that a KC-130 “experienced a mishap” yesterday but provided no details. The KC-130 is used as a refueling tanker.
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who represents North Carolina, said the plane was from the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. Tillis, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, said in a statement that he and his wife were extending their deepest condolences to the families of the Marines killed, as well as to the Cherry Point station.
In a tweet yesterday, President Donald Trump offered condolences.
“Marine Plane crash in Mississippi is heartbreaking. Melania and I send our deepest condolences to all!” Trump wrote.
Andy Jones said he was working on his family’s catfish farm just before 4 p.m. when he heard a boom and looked up to see the plane corkscrewing downward with one engine smoking. “You looked up and you saw the plane twirling around,” he said. “It was spinning down.”
Jones said the plane hit the ground behind trees in the soybean field, and by the time he and other reached the crash site, fires were burning too intensely to approach the wreckage. The force of the crash nearly flattened the plane, Jones said.”Beans are about waist-high, and there wasn’t much sticking out above the beans,” he said.
Jones said a man borrowed his cellphone to report to authorities that there were bodies across U.S. Highway 82, more than a mile from the crash site.
Greenwood Fire Chief Marcus Banks told the Greenwood Commonwealth that debris from the plane was scattered in a radius of about 5 miles (8 kilometers).
Jones said firefighters tried to put out the fire at the main crash site but withdrew after an explosion forced them back. The fire produced towering plumes of black smoke visible for miles across the flat region and continued to burn after dusk, more than four hours after the crash.
Aerial pictures taken by WLBT-TV showed the skeleton of the plane burning strongly. “It was one of the worst fires you can imagine,” Jones said. He said the fire was punctuated by the pops of small explosions.
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point is about 185 kilometers southeast of Raleigh and about 30 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean.
The station was authorized by Congress just before the start of World War II. It supports the 2nd Marine Aviation Wing, providing, among other services, KC-130 aircraft used for in-flight refueling. The station covers 115 square kilometers and has nearly 14,000 Marines, sailors and civilian employees. AP
