A former engineer at a U.S. military air logistics center has been charged with making false statements and obstructing justice during the criminal investigation into a 2017 military plane crash in Mississippi that killed all 16 service members aboard, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Fifteen Marines and one Navy corpsman were killed July 10, 2017, when the Marine Corps KC-130T transport plane broke into pieces in the sky and slammed into a soybean field near Itta Bena, Mississippi.

James Michael Fisher, 67, was arrested Tuesday after a federal grand jury in northern Mississippi indicted him, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner.

The release said Fisher is a former lead propulsion engineer at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Warner Robins, Georgia. Fisher, who now lives in Portugal, made an initial court appearance in Jacksonville, Florida.

https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-military-plane-crash-investigation-6c29c7684a979d85ae6671cbb8ebeb83