At least 45 people were killed and dozens injured yesterday when a Philippine military aircraft carrying troops crashed and burst into flames after missing the runway in the country’s south, officials said.
Nearly 100 people, most of them recent army graduates, were on the C-130 Hercules transport plane that was trying to land on Jolo island in Sulu province around midday.
Some of the soldiers were seen jumping out of the plane before it hit the ground and exploded into flames, said Major General William Gonzales, commander of the Joint Task Force-Sulu.
Photo: AP
It was one of the country’s deadliest military aviation accidents.
“This is a sad day, but we have to remain hopeful,” Gonzales said in a statement. “We enjoin the nation to pray for those who are injured and those who have perished in this tragedy.”
Photographs of the crash site released by the task force showed the damaged tail and the smoking wreckage of the fuselage’s back section lying near coconut trees.
Images published by Pondohan TV on Facebook showed the wreckage engulfed in flames and a plume of thick black smoke rising above houses located near the site.
Philippine Armed Forces Chief General Cirilito Sobejana said the aircraft was carrying troops from Cagayan de Oro on the southern island of Mindanao when it “missed the runway” as it tried to land on Jolo.
The plane tried to “regain power, but didn’t make it,” he told local media.
The four-engine plane crashed near a quarry in a lightly populated area, First Lieutenant Jerrica Angela Manongdo said.
Western Mindanao Command chief Lieutenant General Corletan Vinluan told reporters that the aircraft overshot the landing strip and broke into two, citing initial reports.
Philippine air force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Maynard Mariano said the cause of the crash would be investigated, while armed forces spokesman Major General Edgard Arevalo told DZBB radio that it was being treated as an accident rather than an attack.
Most of the passengers had recently graduated from basic military training and were being deployed to the restive island as part of a joint task force fighting militants in the Muslim-majority region.
They were supposed to report for duty yesterday, Gonzales said.
The Hercules that crashed yesterday had the same tail number as one acquired from the US and delivered to the Philippines earlier this year.
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