All 4 on board confirmed dead in Navy patrol aircraft crash in Pohang

Smoke is seen rising from the Navy plane crash site in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province on Tuesday. (Source: X)

A P-3 maritime patrol aircraft crashed into a mountain near a naval base in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, authorities said Thursday, killing all four people on board.

The Republic of Korea Navy said around 6 p.m., some four hours after the crash, that four bodies have been discovered.

The crew members consisted of one lieutenant commander, who was the pilot, an officer and two non-commissioned officers, a military official told reporters at the scene. Their identities have yet to be confirmed.

No civilian casualties had been confirmed as of press time and the cause of the crash has yet to be identified.

"We have confirmed and is in the process of retrieving the bodies of the four crew members who were on board the maritime patrol aircraft," the Navy said in a notice sent to reporters at 6:27 p.m.

"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," it said in an earlier notice.

Smoke billows on a mountain in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, after a Navy maritime patrol aircraft crashed at around 1:50 p.m. on Thursday. (Yonhap)

The Navy launched a special task force headed by the vice chief of naval operations to deal with the incident. All exercises and flight missions involving P-3 aircraft will be suspended until further notice.

The Navy said that the P-3 patrol aircraft had crashed into an area near its naval base just after 1:43 p.m. The aircraft was engaged in a military training exercise, it added.

The crash caused a fire, with heavy smoke covering the area, according to photos provided by the local media.

The National Fire Agency said 40 firefighters and two helicopters were deployed to the crash site on a mountain in Pohang, after receiving reports at around 1:50 p.m.

Thursday's crash came nearly three months after an uncrewed aerial vehicle crashed into a Surion utility helicopter at an aviation battalion at an Army base in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, in mid-March. The fire destroyed both aircraft, but there were no casualties.

Also on March 6, two KF-16 fighter jets accidentally bombed a village in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, during a training exercise, injuring multiple people. The incident was caused by a pilot entering incorrect target coordinates.