All four people on board a South Korean navy patrol plane have died after it crashed during a training flight over remote mountains on Thursday morning.
The P-3C patrol plane had four people on board when it took off from its base near the southeastern city of Pohang at around 1.43pm local time.
Officials say the aircraft came down just six minutes after take off, with witnesses reporting a loud sound of an explosion and smoke coming from the site of the crash.
"A P-3 maritime patrol aircraft that took off at 1.43pm for landing and takeoff training from an air base in Pohang crashed at a nearby location at around 1.49pm, due to an unspecified reason," the navy said in a statement, according to Yonhap.
The navy said the bodies of all four crew members, including two commissioned officers and two non-commissioned officers, have been found, though their full identities have not been confirmed.
Pictures shared by public broadcaster KBS showed burnt aircraft debris strewn on the ground as rescue workers arrived at the site.
Photos also showed firefighters and at least one water truck operating near the crash site, with flames flickering and black-grey smoke rising from the site between trees.
The navy said it has launched an investigation into the cause of the crash.
There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties on the ground.
The navy said in a statement that it established a task force to investigate the cause of the crash and temporarily suspended all flights of P-3s.
The incident marks the first known crash of the P-3 aircraft, dubbed the "submarine killer". The South Korean navy operates 16 such aircraft.
The fatal crash came on the day when South Koreans headed out to polling stations for early voting in the country's snap presidential polls set to take place next week.
The incident marked latest in a series of aviation accidents in the country.
In December, a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. It was one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea's aviation history.
