A US military plane carrying four service members has crashed during a NATO exercise in Norway, officials said on Friday.
The Marine MV-22 Osprey went missing during an extreme recovery but has since been located. It was not clear in what condition it was, a U.S. military official said.
The weather prevented a helicopter from landing at the crash site, and the condition of those on board was unclear, said the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in northern Norway.
Emergency services worked to send a rescue team, the coordination center said.
Osprey, who is a tipper rotor plane, took part in a cold weather exercise and there was bad weather at the time of the incident, US officials said.
The II Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement that it was aware of the incident being investigated.
“Norwegian civilian authorities are conducting search and rescue efforts at this time,” it said. “We are grateful for their efforts and will help them … in every way possible.”
The plane took part in “Exercise Cold Response 22”, the Marines said in a statement.
The military described it as a Norwegian-led exercise. NATO says it has long been planned and involved thousands of troops from its allies and partners.
The exercise runs from March 14 to April 1, and is “designed to enhance military capabilities and allied cooperation during a high-intensity war scenario in a challenging Arctic environment with rugged terrain and extremely cold weather,” the Marine Corps said. .
While tensions between NATO and Russia are high due to Russia’s attack and invasion of neighboring Ukraine, NATO says the exercise is unrelated and was announced eight months ago.
“It is not linked to the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Russia and Ukraine, to which NATO is responding with preventive, proportionate and non-escalating measures,” the organization said.
Courtney Kube is a National Security and Military correspondent for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
Mosheh Gains is a Pentagon producer for NBC News.
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