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Sixteen Service Members Killed in US Military Plane Crash | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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FILE PHOTO: Two U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters receive fuel from a KC-130 Hercules over the Gulf of Aden January 1, 2003. U.S. Marine Corps/Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald/Handout/File Photo via REUTERS


US officials were investigating on Tuesday the cause of a military transport plane crash that killed 16 service members a day earlier, leaving a five-mile trail of wreckage in rural northern Mississippi.

The KC-130 Hercules aircraft disappeared from air traffic control radar over Mississippi after taking off from Cherry Point, North Carolina. It plunged into a field at approximately 4 p.m. CDT (5 p.m. EST) on Monday in Mississippi’s LeFlore County, about 160 km north of Jackson, the state capital.

Fifteen Marines and one Navy sailor were onboard, the U.S. Marine Corps said. The names of the deceased were being withheld until family members were notified.

Further details on the crash were not released by military officials, but Gen. Robert Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps, pledged “a thorough investigation into the cause of this tragedy.”

The aircraft was originally based out of New York’s Stewart Air National Guard Base, Marine Corps officials said.

It was en route to a Navy facility in El Centro, California, transporting equipment and people. Equipment on board included small arms ammunition and personal weapons.

US President Donald Trump said on Twitter that the crash was heartbreaking. “Melania and I send our deepest condolences to all!” he wrote.

Images posted online by local media showed the plane’s crumpled wreckage engulfed in flames in a field surrounded by tall vegetation, with a large plume of smoke in the sky.

The crash left a five-mile trail of debris, the local Clarion-Ledger newspaper reported.

Local authorities urged people who are not emergency responders to avoid the area because of fuel on the ground. The Marine Corps said it had sent an explosive disposal team to the scene as a precaution.

The KC-130 Hercules is used for air-to-air refueling, to carry cargo and perform tactical passenger missions. It is operated by three crew members and can carry 92 ground troops or 64 paratroopers, according to a US Navy website.

The Greenwood Fire Department chief, Marcus Banks, told the Greenwood Commonwealth newspaper in LeFlore County that 4,000 gallons of foam were used to extinguish the wreckage. Firefighters were at one point driven back, he added, by several “high-intensity explosions” that may have been caused by ammunition igniting.