On Monday afternoon, a U.S. Marine Corps transport carrying 16 service members onboard crashed in rural western Mississippi. Officials from the USMC Twitter report there were no survivors from the crash.
The aircraft, known as the KC-130, was developed by Lockheed Martin for the Marine Corps as a refueling jet and large cargo carrier. The plane has taken off from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in eastern North Carolina and crashed Leflore County, Missippi at about 4 p.m. CT, leaving miles of fiery debris behind it.
The Federal Aviation Administration contacted the Marines when the plane dropped from air traffic control radar while over Mississippi. Leflore County Emergency Management Agency Director Frank Randle told reporters at a press conference Monday night, that a total of 16 bodies were recovered from the wreckage and that the plane had spiraled into the ground about 85 miles north of Jackson in the Mississippi Delta.
CBS affiliate WNCN found several reports from onlookers and first responders. A man named Andy Jones claimed he was working on his family-owned catfish farm just before 4 p.m. when he heard an explosion and saw the plane corkscrewing downward with a single engine smoking. In his own words, he said, "You looked up and you saw the plane twirling around,"..."It was spinning down."
Jones said the plane had crashed into a soybean field and that fires from the crash made it unsafe to approach the wreckage. He mentioned that the plane had been flattened saying, "Beans are about waist-high, and there wasn't much sticking out above the beans,"
Another man borrowed Jones' phone to report that three bodies were thrown across U.S. Highway 82, which was approximately a mile from the original crash site. Marcus Banks, the Greenwood Fire Chief, told the Greenwood Commonwealth that the plane's debris was scattered in a 5-mile radius from the crash site.
Since the crash, several politicians have offered their condolences, including the president. President Trump tweeted early Tuesday, "Marine Plane crash in Mississippi is heartbreaking. Melania and I send out deepest condolences to all!"
Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel said:
Susan and I send our deepest condolences to the families of the MArines who lost their lives in service to our nation. Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and the Havelock community are in our thoughts and prayers. This is a tragic reminder of the dangers our servicemembers are confronted with on a daily basis, including the training missions that are needed to help keep our nation safe at home and abroad.
For now, the names of the service members are being withheld until all of their families are notified, and there is no word on what caused the crash to begin with, but an investigation is under way.
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