Key points
- The aircraft was conducting a routine mission in southern Philippines
- The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines confirmed the crash
- The bodies of the deceased crew were retrieved from the wreckage
MANILA, Philippines: One US service member and three defence contractors died on Thursday when a plane contracted by the US military crashed in a rice field in the southern Philippines.
The aircraft was conducting a routine mission “providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies,” the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
It further said the cause of the crash was under investigation.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines also confirmed the plane crash in Maguindanao del Sur province.
However, it did not immediately provide other details about the incident.
The bodies of the four deceased people were taken from the wreckage in Ampatuan town, said Ameer Jehad Tim Ambolodto, a safety officer of Maguindanao del Sur.
Indo-Pacific Command said the names of the people were being withheld waiting for family notifications.
Disappearing into smoke
Windy Beaty, a disaster mitigation officer, told media that she received reports that locals saw smoke coming from the aircraft and heard an explosion before the plane plummeted to the ground less than a kilometre (about half a mile) from a group of farmhouses.
Nobody was reported injured on or near the site, which was cordoned off by troops, Beaty said.
However, a water buffalo, on the ground, was killed as a result of the plane crash, local officials said.
For decades, US forces have been deployed in a Philippine military camp in the country’s south to assist in providing advice and training to Filipino forces battling militants.
The region is the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.
