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A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey with four crew on board crashed during a training exercise in Norway, according to the Norwegian military.
The Osprey was reported missing at 6:26 p.m. Central European Time, about 30 minutes after its scheduled landing, Reuters reported.
“The Osprey was heading north into Nordland en route to Bodø, where it was due to land just before 6 p.m.,” a statement from the Norwegian military said. “The aircraft’s last known position was over Saltfjellet.
“We have discovered a plane that has crashed,” Nordland Police Chief of Staff Bent Eilertsen told Reuters. “We saw no signs of life.”
Bodø, located north of the Arctic Circle, was experiencing rain, heavy cloud cover and high winds with gusts of up to 82 km/h, according to AccuWeather.com.
“Weather conditions in the region are difficult and are expected to worsen,” the Norwegian statement said.
An initial statement from the US Marine Corps confirmed the crash, but did not say whether any service members were missing or injured, nor did it reveal the name of the unit whose Osprey was a part of.
About 3,000 Marines from II Marine Expeditionary Force, headquartered at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, are in Norway as part of Cold Response, a major NATO biannual training exercise.
Images released via the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service on Wednesday show Marine Ospreys with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, operating from Norwegian Air Base Bodø, Norway.
When not deployed, the squadron is based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina.
Norwegian search and rescue teams had been searching for the downed Osprey for nearly two hours when it picked up the vehicle’s distress beacon, Reuters reported.
“We found it after receiving an emergency signal,” a Norwegian official with the country’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centers told Reuters.
“Because of the bad weather, we cannot go down. Police and emergency services are on their way” by land, the official added.
The Marine Corps is currently investigating the cause of the crash, according to a tweet from the official Marine Corps account.
Three Marines were killed in 2017 when their MV-22B Osprey crashed off Queensland, Australia.
In 2015, a Marine was killed and 21 injured when a Marine Osprey caught fire after a “hard landing” in Hawaii.
This is breaking news and will be updated.
