VIDEO: Philippine military plane crash kills at least 42 on board, 3 civilians on ground
Residents gather (left) and rescue workers arrive as smoke rises from the wreckage after a PAF C-130 transport plane after is crashed near the airport in Jolo town on Sunday. Reuters / AFP
Manolo B. Jara, Correspondent
At least 42 soldiers, pilots and crewmen were killed when a Philippine Air Force (PAF) Lockheed C-130 on Sunday crashed and burst into flames after missing the runway while landing in the island province of Jolo in strife-torn Mindanao. The military officials said three of seven villagers who were hit on the ground also died.
The ill-fated military plane was transporting 92 on board, including the pilots and crewmen, while the rest were the combat forces of the PAF. A senior cabinet official confirmed the worst disasters in the Philippine air force’s history.
"So far, 40 injured were rescued and 17 bodies recovered. Rescue and recovery ongoing," said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, adding that three pilots and five crewmen were also on board.
Lorenzana said most of the passengers were military recruits who were assigned to the Joint Task Force Sulu as the government beefed up its security forces in the campaign against the Daesh-inspired Abu Sayyaf terrorists.
According to Lorenzanna, the soldiers boarded the plane at Cagayan de Oro City also in Mindanao where they underwent training at a military camp prior to their assignment in Sulu where the Abu Sayyaf terrorists operate with impunity.
Citing initial reports, meanwhile, General Cirilito Sobejana, the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said the tragedy occurred when the plane was about to land at the airport in the capital town of Jolo, Sulu, shortly before noon on Sunday.
"The plane missed the runway and tried to regain power but failed," Sobejana said, and then crashed into a village in the neighbouring mountain town of Patikul, considered a hotbed of the Abu Sayyaf terrorists.
Pictures from the scene showed flames and smoke pouring from the wreckage strewn among the trees as men in combat uniforms milled around. A large column of smoke also rose into the blue sky.
The C-130 plane is considered the workhorse of PAF in the transport of soldiers as well as military equipment and supplies. The aircraft has also proven its worth during humanitarian missions whenever typhoons, earthquakes and other calamities would hit the Philippines.
The crashlanding in Sulu was the latest to hit the PAF involving its planes in less than two weeks. On June 23, an S-70i Blackhawk utility helicopter on a night flight training mission crashed in the province of Tarlac in Central Luzon, killing all its six passengers including the pilot with a rank of lieutenant colonel.
