A South Korean Navy maritime patrol aircraft crashed on Thursday during a training mission, killing all four crew members on board, the Ministry of Defense confirmed.
The P-3 aircraft took off at 1:43 p.m. from its base in the coastal city of Pohang, in the country’s southeast, and crashed shortly after for reasons that remain unknown, according to an official statement from the Navy. The bodies of the victims have been identified and recovery operations are underway.
No civilian casualties on the ground were reported, although the crash occurred near a residential area. In response, the Navy has temporarily grounded all P-3 aircraft and launched a special task force to investigate the cause of the incident.
Pohang’s emergency services said rescue teams and fire trucks were dispatched to the crash site after receiving reports from local residents about an aircraft going down on a hill near an apartment complex, sparking a forest fire.
Images from the scene showed large flames and thick smoke rising through the trees as firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze and cool the charred wreckage of the aircraft.
This tragedy comes just months after another fatal air accident in South Korea. In December, a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed while attempting to land at Muan International Airport in the south of the country, killing 179 people and leaving only two survivors. It was one of the deadliest aviation disasters in South Korea’s history.
