It was an ordinary day. Lee Vanlandingham was driving west on U.S. 82 coming from Greenwood to Moorhead Monday afternoon.
Then he heard a “pop,” and that’s when everything changed.
Looking out and up, he said he saw a plane spinning down and going into a nosedive, crashing into a soybean field.
The aircraft, a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130T, had exploded in mid-air. Debris rained down over several miles of rural fields between Itta Bena and Moorhead. A deployed parachute, empty, drifted down.
All 16 persons aboard — 15 Marines and one Navy sailor — perished. The names of the dead had not been released as of Wednesday as families are notified.
The result has been a national outpouring of grief, with President Donald Trump tweeting his condolences among many others.
And now U.S. military officials, FBI agents and others have converged in the Delta to investigate. Sunflower Countians are among those who experienced the tragedy up close.
Vanlandingham said he was probably the second person to reach the crash site.
He immediately called 911, and according to him the plane exploded on impact. But prior to the crash he said he noticed smoke coming from the tip of the left wing as it was spinning downwardly. Communications officers at the E-911 command center reported that the first of many calls started coming in just before 4 p.m.
Andy Jones was one of those who made a 911 call. The catfish farmer said he and some of his crew were working on his ponds southwest of the crash site when they heard a loud boom. At first he said he thought it might be thunder until one of the guys pointed skyward. He looked and saw the aircraft smoking and spiraling down.
From his vantage point Jones couldn’t see the impact because of a clump of trees, but they immediately struck out in the direction of the crash. He said based on the apparent size of the plane as it was coming down he expected it to be much smaller. As it stands, Jones was about two miles from where the plane went down.
“That shows you just how big it was,” he said.
Parts of the plane were found on the north and south side of U.S. 82 across from and just east of Leflore County Road 287.Sunflower County Sheriff James Haywood said he was one of the first to arrive at the site north of the highway because the other officers were headed to the larger crash site where the smoke was billowing into the sky.
Haywood said one of the things that caught his attention was a deployed parachute descending from the sky. He speculated that it was likely attached to a part of the aircraft.
In addition to the U.S. 82 wreckage, an undeployed parachute was allegedly found on Popcorn Road between two fish ponds, which is roughly six miles west of where one of the plane's engine was found in the bean field north of U.S. 82 about a half mile inside of the Leflore County line.
The main site was south of U.S. 82 just off of the Itta Bena-Moorhead Road, only a few yards from the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church.
Sunflower County E-911 Director John Thompson said he was already headed to Moorhead on a routine check when he saw the smoke and heard the call come over the radio. E-911 communication officers said they dispatched deputies and ambulances to the scene upon receiving the flurry of calls.
They said callers told them the crash was along the Moorhead-Itta Bena Road, which is why the Sunflower County team showed up. It wasn’t until later that they realized it was across the Leflore County line.
The massive, waist-high fields of soybeans hindered getting to the blazing craft. Firefighters had to wait for farm workers to clear a path before approaching the flames to extinguish them.
Jones said when he arrived the plane was completely engulfed.
“Nobody approached it; everybody waited,” he said.
Huge plumes of black smoke and orange flames could be seen rising from the site of the wreckage. A rescue fire truck from the Greenwood-Leflore Airport had to be used to get the flames under control.
According to a Marine Corps press release, the aircraft was on its way to a Navy facility in El Centro, Calif. The Associated Press reported six of the Marines and the sailor were from an elite Marine Raider battalion at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and were ultimately headed for pre-deployment training in Yuma, Ariz.
Small arms ammunition and personal weapons were listed among the equipment on board the plane, which may account for popping noises heard from the fiery remains.
The information from the Marines indicated the plane was from Marine Aerial Refueling and Transport Squadron (VMGR) 452, Marine Air Group-49, 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Forces Reserve and originated from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant issued a statement asking people not to take debris they find from the crash.
Officials said the details of the incident are being investigated and that their focus is on providing the necessary resources and support to the families and friends of the deceased service members.
