ITTA BENA, Miss. (AP) — Federal and local officials are combing Mississippi soybean fields for clues in a military plane crash that killed 15 Marines and a Navy sailor.

Debris was scattered for miles across the flat countryside Tuesday. The disaster Monday afternoon was the deadliest Marine crash anywhere in the world in more than a decade.

The Marine Corps says six of the Marines and the sailor were from an elite Marine Raider battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The special forces members and their equipment were headed for pre-deployment training in Yuma, Arizona.

The plane was based at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, and officials said some of those killed were from the base.

Military officials continued to withhold the names of the dead, saying they were notifying family members.

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