Military plane crash kills at least 16 people

A U.S. military plane crashed in rural Mississippi on Monday evening, killing at least 16 people, officials said. The KC-130 aircraft, which set off from the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, N.C., spiraled into a field some 85 miles north of Jackson in the Mississippi Delta. At a press briefing, Emergency Management Agency Director Frank Randle said authorities recovered 16 bodies from the crash site. Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Burns said in a statement the aircraft “experienced a mishap” but provided no details on what might have caused the crash. Pictures and videos from the scene showed the plane surrounded by crops with thick black smoke rising from the site. Fire Chief Marcus Banks told the Greenwood Commonwealth newspaper the plane’s debris scattered around a radius of about 5 miles. The KC-130 aircraft is used primarily as a refueling tanker.