A U.S. Marine Corps aircraft KC-130 from Tennessee, crashed in Mississippi on Monday. The military plane with sixteen service members on board, crashed into a soybean field about 85 miles north of Jackson at around 4pm local time, Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks confirmed. The blast left bodies strewn across the motorway over a mile away from the crash site, according to witnesses.
Rescue team present at the scene said they were met with “high-intensity explosions”, and a local cop said the plane was loaded with ammunition. The Mississippi State Trooper told WMC Action News 5: “There’s a lot of ammo in the plane. That’s why we are keeping so far back. “We just don’t know what it’ll do. It burns a bit then goes out, burns a little more, then dies down.”
The Leflore County Emergency Management chief has confirmed the death toll had risen from the five deaths reported earlier. Sheriff Ricky Banks told The Clarion Ledger: “Most of [the dead] are gonna be Marines.” It is not known whether any civilians were also on the plane or what sparked the deadly crash.
A USMC KC-130 mishap occurred the evening of July 10. Further information will be released as available. pic.twitter.com/QEFhooJZmC
— U.S. Marines (@USMC) July 11, 2017
Photo Credit: Getty