SACHEON, South Korea– Two Air Force KT-1 trainer jets collided in midair and crashed in southern South Korea on Friday, leaving three pilots dead and another missing, the Air Force and local disaster response officials said.

The jets went down in a rice paddy in Sacheon, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul, after colliding with each other in midair at around 1:37 p.m. during training, just minutes after their takeoffs from a nearby base, they said.

The Air Force formed a task force, led by its deputy chief of staff, to handle the aftermath of the accident with a plan to look into what caused it.

Over 30 firefighters and emergency responders were dispatched to the crash site.

South Korea has operated the homegrown single-engine, two-seat basic training aircraft since 2000.

Source: Yonhap News Agency