Five American service members were killed during a training exercise Sunday after a military aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
A fatal mishap occurred onboard during a routine air refueling mission, according to the U.S. European Command.
Search and rescue operations have begun, and the Department of Defense is withholding the fallen crew members’ identities until their next of kin have been notified.
The incident is the second military accident that resulted in fatalities this year.
In August, a Marine Corps aircraft crashed onto Melville Island in Australia during a training exercise, killing three of the 23 service members it was carrying and leaving the rest injured.
Prior to that, the military had avoided fatal aircraft accidents since October 2020, when a Navy trainer aircraft crashed near Magnolia Springs, Alabama, and killed both pilots onboard.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
