A US Air Force C-5 Galaxy cargo plane crashed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware with 17 people on board today, but there were no fatalities.
The plane lay on a field about 200 metres from the runway, with the cockpit and tail sections separated from the fuselage and a wing damaged. Emergency crews were on the scene, and some people had been taken to hospital.
"After taking off there was some type of in-flight emergency, and when it returned to the base it landed short of the runway," said Capt. John Sheets, a spokesman at Scott Air Force Base, which is affiliated with the Dover base.
"We are able to confirm that there are no fatalities," Lt Katherine Kebisek said.
There was no information about injuries.
The plane was taking cargo to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Sheets said. The weather at the base was reported as partly cloudy with winds of 11 kph.
The C-5, made by Lockheed Martin, is the biggest plane in the Air Force and one of the largest in the world. It is used for large shipments of cargo around the globe, and normally flies with a crew of seven.
The plane has four engines, made by General Electric.
The Dover base has the US military's largest and busiest air-freight terminal and the service flies missions to more than 100 countries, according to the base Web site.