Four killed as South Korean Navy airplane crashes into hillside

All four crew members aboard a South Korean navy airplane died after it crashed into a hillside and exploded near country’s east coast on Thursday afternoon.

The turboprop aircraft, which was used for marine patrols, crashed around 1:50 p.m. local time in Pohang, a city about 250 miles southeast of Seoul, according to officials. Two officers and two noncommissioned officers were on board, a military official said at a briefing. The bodies of all four were later recovered, firefighters said.

The plane had departed from an air base in Pohang during a training session five minutes before the accident, according to military officials. The police said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Videos from local news media showed smoke billowing upward from a forested hillside and fire trucks and ambulances nearby.

Kim Hong-gi, a Pohang resident, said he was eating a doughnut when he “heard a sputtering sound overhead and a large boom from behind.” When he turned around, he saw smoke in the distance. “I’ve never witnessed a plane crash before. I was shocked,” he said.

Local fire officials said they had deployed two helicopters and 40 firefighters to extinguish the fire.