A US military plane taking part in NATO exercises has crashed in Norway, killing all four American troops on board, the Scandinavian country's army said Saturday.

The four were taking part in the Cold Response military exercises involving 30,000 troops from NATO and partner countries.

About 200 planes and some 50 ships are taking part in the exercises, which will continue until April 1.

Their plane, a V-22B Osprey aircraft belonging to the US Marine Corps, was reported missing on Friday evening south of Bodo in northern Norway.

At 01:30 (0030 GMT) on Saturday, "the police arrived at the scene. The police in Nordland County now confirm that the crew of four have died. As far as the police know, the four are of American nationality," the Norwegian defence ministry said in a statement.

The US Marine Corps said in a statement that four Marines were listed as "duty status whereabouts unknown" following "an aviation incident" involving a MV-22B Osprey.

It said their identities would not be released until 24 hours after the soldiers' next of kin had been notified.

"It's with great sadness that we received the message saying that four American soldiers died in a plane crash last night," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said on Twitter.

The area is prone to landslides and avalanches.

"Everything leads to believe that the (meteorological) situation will improve tomorrow and that we'll be able to send people to the site," the Nordland police chief told a news conference.

"The most important thing for us is to find those who died and to do our best to find the cause of the accident," she added.

A local police official, Bent Are Eilertsen, said: "The plane struck the mountain."

Cold Response 2022 aims to test how Norway would manage allied reinforcements on its soil in the event that NATO's mutual defence clause were triggered.

Tensions between Russia and NATO have soared following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, but the exercises were planned long before that offensive began on February 24.

Related Links
Aerospace News at SpaceMart.com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

British pilot killed in trainer jet crash in Italy
Rome (AFP) March 16, 2022
A British pilot died Wednesday when a Leonardo trainer aircraft crashed in mountains near Lake Como in northern Italy, the Italian aerospace and defence giant said. The M-346 jet, intended for military pilot training, took off from Leonardo's site near Varese at 11:00 am (1000 GMT), before losing contact 35 minutes later. The aircraft wreckage was found near the town of Colico at the lake's northeastern side, Leonardo said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the instructor pilot, who belonged to ... read more