Two South Korean Air Force planes collided and crashed, killing 3 people

SEOUL, South Korea – Two South Korean Air Force planes collided in mid-air during training Friday and crashed into a mountain in the southeastern city of Sacheon, killing three people and injuring one, emergency officials said.

Officials, citing department rules, said on condition of anonymity that they had not received any reports of civilian casualties or damage to the ground.

Three helicopters, 20 vehicles and dozens of emergency workers were dispatched to the scene, officials said.

The Air Force has confirmed the collision of two KT-1 instructor aircraft. However, the Air Force said in a statement that it was trying to confirm the reported casualties and whether the pilots tried to get out safely. It is said that the KT-100 aircraft is a two-seater aircraft.

The cause of the collision was not immediately known.

Friday’s incident comes months after a South Korean Air Force pilot died in January when his F-5E fighter jet crashed into a mountain in the town of Hawaseong, south of the capital Seoul.

South Korea has about 560,000 troops under a deployment system to help prevent a possible North Korean aggression, with about 1.3 million troops, one of the largest in the world. About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea, the legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.