Navy patrol plane crash kills four
Accident scene: Smoke rising from a mountain in Pohang, South Korea, where a navy patrol plane carrying four people crashed. — AP
A navy maritime patrol plane crashed in South Korea, killing all four people on board, authorities said.
The plane crashed in a mountainous area near the southeastern city of Pohang just before 2pm, around six minutes after take-off, according to South Korea's navy.
The maritime patrol aircraft was conducting take-off and landing training when it crashed, the navy said.
'The Navy has located all four bodies of the maritime patrol aircraft crew and is currently recovering them,' the navy said in a statement.
Of the four victims, two were officers and two were non-commissioned officers, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
No civilian casualties have been confirmed.
The cause of the incident is being investigated, the navy said yesterday.
Fire authorities have dispatched some 40 personnel in response, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which published photos showing firefighters and at least one water truck operating near the crash site, with flames flickering as black-grey smoke engulfed the trees.
South Korea suffered the worst aviation disaster on its soil in December when a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crash-landed and exploded in a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier. — AFP
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The Star
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So, before you share that headline, stop and ask yourself: Who's behind this? Are they a credible source, or just looking for clicks? With the speed at which misinformation spreads these days, it's more important than ever to approach everything we read with caution. If an article is packed with sensational language or dramatic tones, it's a massive red flag. Genuine news tends to be neutral and based on facts. And then there's confirmation bias – the sneaky habit we all have of believing stories that match our own views. Fake news is particularly good at exploiting this. I once stumbled upon a headline that seemed to echo everything I already believed. I was just about to share it, but something made me pause and look into it further. It turned out that the whole thing was a distortion of the facts. It's why we all need to stay alert, question what we read, and make sure we're not unknowingly feeding the fire of misinformation. 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