Two aircraft belonging to South Korea's air force have collided in mid-air during a training exercise, killing three pilots, with a fourth missing in the rare incident, authorities have said.
More than 30 firefighters and rescuers have begun a search at the crash site, the Yonhap news agency said, citing fire officials.
The crash happened about 6km south of the KT-1 airplanes' base in the southeastern city of Sacheon, at about 1.37pm local time (05.37 Irish time), the air force said.
"Despite their attempts at an emergency escape, three pilots died and one remains missing," it said in a statement.
It added that it had formed a team to determine the cause of the incident and damage.
The KT-1 is a single-engine basic trainer and light attack aircraft jointly built by the state-run Agency for Defence Development and a contractor, Korea Aerospace Industries.
