Philippine military transport crashes, killing at least 17
By Regine Cabato,
AP AP
MANILA — At least 17 military personnel died and 40 were wounded in a military plane crash Sunday in the southern Philippines, the Defense Ministry announced.
The Philippine Air Force C-130 aircraft “figured in a landing mishap” around 11:30 a.m., a government statement said, while traveling from Cagayan de Oro City, over 450 miles south of Manila, to the island of Jolo.
The casualty count could rise as initial reports list around 92 people on the plane, including three pilots, five crew members. Rescue and recovery operations are underway.
“It’s very unfortunate,” Sobejana told reporters. “The plane missed the runway and it was trying to regain power but failed and crashed.”
Photos from the official state news agency show the tail of the plane, with the number 5125, surrounded in flames and the crash site, and a black plume of smoke visible from a nearby residential area.
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AFP/Getty Images
In this July 4 photo from the Philippine military, smoke billows from the wreckage of a Philippine Air Force C-130 transport plane after it crashed near the airport in Jolo town, Sulu province on the southern island of Mindanao
Jolo, located in the southwestern island province of Sulu, is home to numerous military facilities. The armed forces have been locked in a decades-long effort to stamp out an insurgency in the dominantly Muslim region.
Just last month, an air force helicopter crash left six people — three pilots and three crew members — dead. Four people died in yet another crash in September last year.
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