Two dead after South Korea navy plane crashes near military base
The P-3C patrol plane had four people on board when it took off from its base near the southeastern city of Pohang at around 1.43pm local time.
Officials say the aircraft came down just six minutes after take off, with witnesses reporting a loud sound of an explosion and smoke coming from the site of the crash.
"A P-3 maritime patrol aircraft that took off at 1.43pm for landing and takeoff training from an air base in Pohang crashed at a nearby location at around 1.49pm, due to an unspecified reason," the navy said in a statement, according to Yonhap.
Cho Young-sang, a navy officer overseeing the search efforts, said in a televised briefing that workers found the bodies of two crew members and were preparing to transfer them to a nearby hospital.
He said workers were continuing to search for those missing.
The Yonhap report said three bodies had been retrieved from the scene. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
Pictures shared by public broadcaster KBS showed burnt aircraft debris strewn on the ground as rescue workers arrived at the site.
Photos also showed firefighters and at least one water truck operating near the crash site, with flames flickering and black-grey smoke rising from the site between trees.
The four people included two officers and two non-commissioned officers, though their full identities have not been confirmed.
The navy said it has launched an investigation into the cause of the crash.
There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties on the ground.
The navy said in a statement that it established a task force to investigate the cause of the crash and temporarily suspended all flights of P-3s.
The fatal crash came on the day when South Koreans headed out to polling stations for early voting in the country's snap presidential polls set to take place next week.
The incident marked latest in a series of aviation accidents in the country.
In December, a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. It was one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea's aviation history.
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