Rescuers and villagers found a body and debris yesterday that were believed to be from a C-130 military cargo plane that went missing in the southern Philippines, officials said.
The plane, transporting two pilots and seven crewmen, lost contact with air traffic control two minutes after taking off from Davao international airport in southern Mindanao island late on Monday.
“We have received reports from our tactical operations group in Davao that they have found debris near one village,” said Air force spokesman Major Gerardo Zamudio, who could not say if the items were from the plane.
One body has been recovered, said Major Armand Rico, a spokesman for the military’s regional command in the south.
Rescuers near the coastal town of Agdao have also retrieved combat boots and parts of a plane in the sea.
Personal effects, including ID cards, ripped clothing as well as wallets and air force documents were found in another coastal village and taken to a command post to be examined, Rico said.
Officials had initially declined to confirm the debris was from the 41-year-old Lockheed Martin aircraft, but investigators on the ground said evidence gathered so far indicated it was the missing craft.
The plane was scheduled to fly to the central city of Iloilo to pick up members of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo’s security team and then take them to Manila, Cadungog said.
The trip would have taken about one hour.
Witnesses heard a loud explosion shortly after it took off, said the head of the Air Force, Lieutenant-General Pedrito Cadungog, adding the incident was “very puzzling” and it was unusual for a large plane to go missing without a trace.
The C-130 was at an altitude of about 1,524m when it made its last call requesting clearance for a flight path, said Cadungog, who called the pilots seasoned airmen.
Three military helicopters were involved in the search, and Cadungog said he asked US forces to help.
There were no reports of maintenance problems with the C-130, he said.
The air force has not ruled out the possibility of an attack by Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels fighting government troops on the island.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition