Two US Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters receive fuel from a KC-130 Hercules over the Gulf of Aden. PHOTO: REUTERS
At least 16 people were killed when a US military plane crashed in rural Mississippi on Monday evening, a regional emergency management official said.
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No official details were immediately available on the circumstances of the crash in northern Mississippi's LeFlore County, about 160 kilo metre north of Jackson, the state capital.
Captain Sarah Burns, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps, said only that a US Marines KC-130 Hercules transport aircraft had "experienced a mishap," with news media initially reporting five confirmed deaths.
Several hours later, Fred Randle, LeFlore County director of emergency management, told Reuters that at least 16 people had perished. Randle gave no further details of the incident.
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The incident was a 'tragedy', Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant said in a statement on social media site Facebook, but provided no details.
[fbpost link="https://www.facebook.com/im4phil/posts/1575412442478341"]
Images posted online by news organisations showed the crumpled wreckage of a plane engulfed in flames in a field surrounded by tall vegetation, with a large plume of smoke in the sky above the crash site.
UPDATE: Death toll rises to 16 in military plane crash in Mississippi https://t.co/Atwer6yZJI pic.twitter.com/J76Msf3rih
— Ashley Richardson (@iashleyrichards) July 11, 2017
16 dead in Marine C-130 crash in Mississippi https://t.co/HQ0lsutjtD pic.twitter.com/ByMSYWhQQh
— KFVS News (@kfvsnews) July 11, 2017
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