Officials say a US Marine Corps plane carrying four passengers crashed in northern Norway on Friday while participating in a NATO exercise a few hundred miles from the Russian border.
Around 6:30 p.m. local time, the MV-22B Osprey was reported missing. According to Norwegian officials, the wreckage was discovered by a rescue chopper and a Norwegian military plane.
Nordland police chief of staff Bent Eilertsen remarked, “We’ve seen no evidence of life.”
Officials said that due to severe weather, air rescue efforts have been hampered and that a ground reaction is ongoing.
“It’s dark, the weather is bad, and avalanches are a possibility,” Eilertsen remarked.
In a statement, the Marines confirmed a “incident” involving an MV-22B Osprey aircraft.
When the plane-helicopter hybrid went missing, it was taking part in a NATO exercise called “Cold Response.”
According to the US military news outlet Stars and Stripes, thousands of Marines and sailors were among the 30,000 NATO troops participating in military maneuvers roughly 200 kilometers from Russia’s border with Norway.