Seoul, May 29 A Navy patrol plane carrying four people crashed on a mountain in South Korea's southeastern city of Pohang on Thursday, authorities said.
Soon after, three bodies were retrieved from the rubble.
The crash occurred at 1:50 p.m., and witnesses reported smoke rising from the mountain.
"A P-3 maritime patrol aircraft that took off for training from an air base in Pohang at 1:43 p.m. crashed at a nearby location due to unidentified reasons," the Navy said in a notice to reporters.
The Navy confirmed that four people were aboard the aircraft. It has launched an investigative unit to look into further details, including casualties. No civilian casualties were reported, according to Yonhap news agency.
Fire authorities have been dispatched to the scene to extinguish the fire.
Acting President Lee Ju-ho was briefed on the crash by acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho and called for all-out efforts to rescue the passengers and prevent further damage to the surrounding environment, his office said.
The Navy operates 16 P-3C aircraft, dubbed the "submarine killer" for its anti-submarine capabilities.
The recent accident marks the first known crash involving a P-3C aircraft deployed by the armed service.
In a separate development, a Jeju Air Co. plane carrying 183 passengers and six crew members briefly veered off the runway after landing at an airport in Vietnam, with no injuries reported, the company said on Thursday.
Jeju Air's Flight 7C2217, involving a B737-800 aircraft, departed from Incheon International Airport and landed at Da Nang International Airport at around 12:50 a.m. on Wednesday (local time).
While taxiing on the runway, the aircraft briefly veered onto a safety zone to the right of the runway before returning to the tarmac.
One of the aircraft's landing gear tyres was torn in the incident.
Jeju Air replaced the damaged tyre after all passengers disembarked from the plane and dispatched a replacement aircraft of the same model from South Korea to operate the return flight, 7C2218, the company said.
The return flight was delayed by more than 14 hours and departed Da Nang at 4:08 p.m. Wednesday, it said.
South Korea's transport ministry is currently investigating the cause of the runway deviation.
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