At least 16 US marines died when a military flight crashed in the country's state of Mississippi.

A Marine Corps KC-130 transport aircraft crashed in LeFlore County, Miss., on July 10 at approximately 4 p.m. CDT, claiming the lives of 16 service members, the Marine Corps said in a statement.

The KC-130 Hercules transport aircraft erupted in a fireball as it suffered what the US Marine Corps described as a mishap on Monday evening.

The plane came down in a soybean field, with pictures showing the crumpled wreckage engulfed in flames as a large plume of smoke billowed into the sky.

The circumstances of the crash, in northern Mississippi's LeFlore County, about 100 miles north of Jackson, the state capital, remain unclear.

Captain Sarah Burns, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps, said the aircraft had experienced a mishap.

FBI spokesman Brett Carr told the New York Times that the agency was sending officials to the scene, but authorities did not believe foul play was involved.

We're just trying to offer any type of assistance, Carr, a spokesman for the bureau's Jackson, Mississippi office, told the newspaper. It could be anything from manpower to evidence response.

The refueling tanker was loaded with explosives, keeping emergency responders at bay while investigators told WMC that debris indicated the plane exploded in midair.

The KC-130, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is a four-engine turboprop aircraft mostly used for military transportation, according to the company's website.