A South Korean military plane crashed on Thursday, killing a pilot, the air force said.

The two-seater training plane, a propeller-driven KT-1, crashed on a river bank shortly after taking off from an air base in Sachon, a town on the country's central south coast.

A trainee pilot was killed while an instructor safely ejected from the cockpit, air force spokesman Lee Tae-young said.

The air force grounded all KT-1s while it investigates the cause of the crash.

Since 2000, the South Korean air force has bought dozens of KT-1 planes built by Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd., a privately owned company.

The company signed a deal in 2001 to sell seven KT-1s to Indonesia by the end of 2003. The first two craft were delivered in July.

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