Philippines: C-130 military plane transporting troops crashes; 47 dead, 49 injured
Chief of Staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana did not say if there were casualties and how many were on board the air force plane.
FollowPhilippines: A plane carrying Philippine troops crashed and broke up in flames in the southern Philippines on Sunday with 92 people aboard. The Lockheed C-130 aircraft had a mishap on landing, the air force said in a statement.
A Philippine air force C-130 aircraft carrying troops crashed in a southern province Sunday after missing the runway. All 96 passengers of the Philippine Air Force plane that crashed on Sunday killing 47 people have been accounted for, military chief Cirilito Sobejana said on Monday. Forty nine military personnel were injured in the crash, Sobejana told Reuters.
Chief of Staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana did not immediately say how many people were on board the aircraft and if there were casualties after it crashed on landing shortly before noon in Bangkal village in the mountainous town of Patikul in Sulu province.
The plane was transporting troops from southern Cagayan de Oro city, Sobejana said. Government forces have been battling Abu Sayyaf militants in the predominantly Muslim province of Sulu for decades.
“It’s very unfortunate,” Sobejana told reporters. “The plane missed the runway and it was trying to regain power but failed and crashed.”
Sobejana said at least 40 people on board were brought to a hospital and troops were trying to save the rest.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.
It has been raining in the central Philippines but it was not immediately clear if the weather in the Sulu region has been affected. The airport in Sulu’s main town of Jolo is located a few kilometres (miles) from a mountainous area where troops have battled the Abu Sayyaf. Some militants have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group.
The United States and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization for bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings. It has been considerably weakened by years of government offensives but remains a threat.
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