Marine Corps plane crashes near Arizona base

YUMA, Arizona (CNN) -- A military plane carrying four people crashed Friday near the Marine Corps Air Station at Yuma, according to a Marine Corps spokeswoman on the base. All four crew members of the "EA6 Prowler," a twin-engine electronic warfare jet were killed.

The crash occurred west of the Gila mountains at 10 a.m. during a routine training mission, the spokeswoman said.

"The location of the downed aircraft has been determined to be inaccessible by vehicle," a Marine Corps news release said.

The plane was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station-Cherry Point, North Carolina, assigned to the Marine Electronic Warfare Squadron-One. The Squadron was visiting Yuma to use the air station's ranges in the Yuma Desert for pilot training.

Two U.S. military planes crashed Thursday. An Air National Guard A-10 warplane went down in a remote marsh on Maryland's Eastern Shore during a maintenance test flight from Willow Grove Air Reserve Base in Pennsylvania. The pilot's body was found Friday morning.

Also Thursday, a Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, about 40 miles east of Ocean City, Maryland. The search for the pilot was abandoned Thursday night.

The Air Force canceled training flights Friday for many of its planes to allow a day for review of safety procedures. That move was a reaction to several recent military crashes, including a C-130 that crashed last weekend in Wyoming, killing all nine people on board.

• Second military jet crashes on East Coast - Aug. 22, 1996
• Fighter jet crashes off U.S. East Coast - Aug. 22, 1996

Related sites:

• MarineLINK
• Air National Guard

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