29 killed after Air Force plane crashes in Sulu
COTABATO, Philippines (UPDATE 5, 6:13 p.m.) — At least 29 people were killed and 50 injured Sunday when a Philippine military aircraft carrying troops crashed and burst into flames after missing the runway in the country's south, officials said.
Another 17 on board the C-130 Hercules transport plane when it crashed while trying to land on Jolo island in Sulu province are still missing, Major General William Gonzales said in a statement.
"This is a sad day but we have to remain hopeful," he said.
Ninety-two people, most of them army personnel, were on board the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft when the accident happened as it tried to land on Jolo island in Sulu province around midday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.
Photos taken by local media outlet Pondohan TV and posted on their Facebook page showed the wrecked body of the plane engulfed in flames. A plume of thick black smoke rose above houses located near the crash site.
Armed Forces Chief General Cirilito Sobejana said the aircraft had been 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, describing the accident as "very unfortunate".
"Responders are at the site now, we are praying we can save more lives," Sobejana told AFP.
Sobejana said the 40 rescued were being treated at the nearby 11th Infantry Division hospital.
Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Maynard Mariano said the cause of the crash would be investigated.
"We are on rescue mode right now," Mariano told AFP.
It was being treated as an accident rather than an attack, Armed Forces spokesman Major General Edgard Arevalo told DZBB radio.
The four-engine plane crashed near a quarry in a lightly populated area, First Lieutenant Jerrica Angela Manongdo told AFP, adding the rescue operation had finished.
Initial reports said the aircraft overshot the landing strip and broke into two, Western Mindanao Command chief Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan told AFP.
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 terrorism in the region.
The military has a heavy presence in the southern Philippines where militant groups, including the kidnap-for-ransom outfit Abu Sayyaf, operate.
One of the deadliest
C-130 aircraft, the work horses of the air force, are used to transport troops and supplies. They are also often deployed to deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
The mishap was one of the country's deadliest military aviation accidents.
Senator Richard Gordon said it was the fourth this year with "mass casualties".
"Are we buying defective crafts w the people's money?" he tweeted.
Sunday's accident comes after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed last month during a night-time training flight, killing all six on board.
Three pilots and three airmen died when their S70-i went down near the Crow Valley training range north of Manila, prompting the grounding of the entire fleet.
The country ordered 16 of the multi-role aircraft from a Polish firm that made them under licence from the Sikorsky division of US defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
Eleven have been delivered since late 2020.
Seven people have been tragically killed as their plane plummeted into a house in Bulacan.
Retrieval operation is ongoing.
FULL STORY: 7 dead as small plane crashes in Bulacan residential area
An Australian man was charged in Singapore on Saturday for making a bomb threat on board a Perth-bound plane that forced the aircraft to turn back under fighter jet escort.
Hawkins Kevin Francis, 30, faces up to 10 years in jail or a fine not exceeding Sg$500,000 ($356,000) or both on conviction.
Flight TR16 operated by Singapore budget carrier Scoot was forced to turn back to the city-state an hour into the journey on Thursday after the threat was made. — AFP
Airport officials say a flight from Panama to the United States made a u-turn Friday after the discovery of a suspicious package in the toilet that turned out to be... an adult diaper.
Panama's civil aviation authority at first announced the Copa flight between Panama City and Tampa, Florida, had to turn around due to a presumed "bomb threat."
Back on the tarmac, the plane was emptied of passengers and searched by a police explosives unit. — AFP
Officials say a US man who groped a sleeping passenger on a plane was jailed Thursday for nearly two years.
Mohammad Jawad Ansari, 50, put his hand on the inner thigh of a woman as she slept in the middle seat of a flight from Cleveland to Los Angeles in February 2020.
The victim, who was wearing a dress, woke up and pushed Ansari's hand away before leaving her seat and telling cabin crew about the assault. — AFP
Officials say 14 people were killed Saturday when a plane crashed in the Brazilian Amazon while trying to land in stormy weather in the tourist town of Barcelos, leaving no survivors.
The small plane's pilot was approaching the remote town in heavy rain, with low visibility, and appeared to inadvertently start landing halfway down the runway, Amazonas state security secretary Vinicius Almeida tells a news conference.
The plane ran out of landing strip and crashed, killing all 12 passengers and two crew, he says. — AFP
Malaysian air accident investigators are analyzing on Friday the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of a light plane that crashed into a road near the capital, killing all eight people on board and two on the ground.
The Beechcraft Model 390 aircraft exploded into a fireball on impact when it crashed Thursday in Selangor state west of the capital Kuala Lumpur, with thick black smoke seen rising from the site, video clips from the scene showed.
All eight people on board -- six passengers and two flight crew -- as well as two motorists on the four-lane road were killed, police say. — AFP
- Latest
- Trending
