All four crew members aboard a South Korean Navy airplane died after it crashed into a hillside and exploded near country’s east coast on Thursday afternoon.

       The turboprop aircraft, which was used for marine patrols, crashed at around 1:50 p.m. local time in Pohang, a city about 250 miles southeast of Seoul, according to officials. Two officers and two noncommissioned officers were on board, a military official said at a briefing. The bodies of all four were later recovered, fire fighters said.

       The plane had departed from an air base in Pohang during a training session five minutes before the accident, according to military officials. The police said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

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