A UNITED States military aircraft with four crew members on board is believed to have crashed in Norway while taking part in Nato exercises, said Norwegian emergency services yesterday.

The US Osprey aircraft “was reported missing at 18.26 (1726 GMT) south of Bodo” in northern Norway in bad weather, said the regional emergency services (HRS) in a statement.

The four-person crew were taking part in the Cold Response military exercises involving 30,000 people from Nato and partner nations.

The US Marine Corps confirmed “a mishap” involving a MV-22B Osprey during the exercises, and said Norwegian civil authorities are leading search-and-rescue efforts.

Rescuers searching from the air saw signs of the aircraft in the area where it went missing, but the weather was too bad for them to land, said the Norwegian emergency services.

It added that rescue teams and police are heading to the area.

“We are not at the site itself, so we know nothing of the four people who were on board. But we know it is a crash site,” said HRS spokesman Jan Eskil Severinsen on the NRK television channel.

Cold Response 2022 aims to test how Norway will manage allied reinforcements on its soil in the event that Nato’s mutual defence clause is triggered.

This week’s exercises come amid high tension between Nato and Russia over the latter’s invasion of Ukraine, but they were planned long before the offensive began on February 24. – AFP, March 19, 2022.