No less than 16 people are dead after a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130 airplane from Tennessee crashed into a soybean field in Mississippi Monday after possibly suffering a structural failure, officials say.
Alan Hammons, an official with the Greenwood Airport, said the plane suffered a structural failure at 20,000 feet that caused it to plunge into field.
The official Twitter account of the U.S. Marine Corps. tweeted that a ‘USMC KC-130 mishap occurred the evening of July 10.
The planes can be modified for various uses including carrying cargo, transporting troops or carrying out inflight refueling.
Secretary of the Interior and Navy SEAL Ryan Zinke tweeted his condolences saying: “Please join me in praying for or sending good thoughts to the families and unit of the Marines we lost tonight in the C 130 crash.”