Plane crash kills 16

Tanker spiralled out of sky before exploding in bean field

A US Marine refuelling tanker crashed into a soybean field in rural Mississippi on Monday, killing at least 16 people aboard and spreading debris for miles, officials said.

Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks said officials were still searching for bodies after nightfall, more than five hours after the KC-130 spiralled into the ground about 135km north of Jackson in Mississippi’s Delta region. “We’re still searching the area,” Mr Banks said. “It’s hard to find bodies in the dark.”

Marine Corps spokeswoman Captain Sarah Burns said a Marine KC-130 “experienced a mishap” on Monday evening but provided no details.

Andy Jones said he was working on his family’s catfish farm just before 4pm when he heard a boom and looked up to see the plane corkscrewing downward with one engine smoking.

“You looked up and you saw the plane twirling around,” he said.

“It was spinning down.” Mr Jones said the plane hit the ground behind some trees, and by the time he and others reached the crash site, fires were burning too intensely to approach the wreckage.

The force of the crash nearly flattened the plane, he said.

“Beans are about waisthigh, and there wasn’t much sticking out above the beans,” Mr Jones said.

He said firefighters tried to put out the fire at the main crash site but withdrew after an explosion forced them back.

The fire produced towering plumes of black smoke visible for miles across the flat region and continued to burn after dusk. Aerial pictures taken by WLBT-TV showed the plane’s skeleton burning strongly.

“It was one of the worst fires you can imagine,” Mr Jones said.

He said the fire was punctuated by small explosions.

Officials did not release information on what caused the crash or where the flight originated.