At least 50 people were killed, and 53 others were injured on Sunday when the Lockheed Hercules C-130, a Philippine military transport plane carrying troops, crashed and burst into flames after missing the small runway in Patikul town on Jolo island of the Philippines’ Sulu province.
The Straits Times reported that the Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Major General Edgard Arevalo said 50 people, including 47 military personnel and three civilians, died when the plane “skidded” and burst into flames in a village. “We have people on the ground to make sure the integrity of the pieces of the evidence that we will retrieve, most particularly the flight data recorder. Aside from eyewitness accounts, we are also looking for recordings, radio conversation recordings between the pilot and the control tower. It is one of the worst tragic incidents that happened in our armed forces,” Major General Arevalo said.
“These are all seasoned and experienced pilots; that’s why we are also unable to immediately say how this came into being. Even if these (military assets) are not brand new, these are airworthy or seaworthy or land worthy,” the Major General added, referring to the second-hand aircraft acquired from the United States (US) and delivered to the Philippines in January this year, which crashed on Sunday. The C-130 was one of the four in the country’s fleet. Of the remaining three, two are being repaired, while the other one has been grounded following the crash.
It is not clear yet if the pilots survived the crash. Of those injured, most were soldiers assigned to the 4th Infantry Division. The aircraft was carrying 96 people, most of whom were recent graduates of the basic military training and deployed to the Sulu island as part of a counter-insurgency effort in the Muslim-majority region. The three people killed on the ground were in the path of the plane’s crash and had been working in a quarry, village leader Tanda Hailid told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Pictures of the wreckage released by the Joint Task Force-Sulu showed the damaged tail of the fuselage’s back section lying in a coconut grove. A news report by Channel News Asia mentioned the Joint Task Force saying that “A number of soldiers were seen jumping out of the aircraft before it hit the ground, sparing them from the explosion caused by the crash.” However, it remains unclear whether those that jumped survived the crash.
“This is a sad day, but we have to remain hopeful,” commander of the Joint Task Force-Sulu, Major-General William Gonzales, said.
The crash is the latest in a series of air force accidents in the Philippines this year. Last month, a Black Hawk helicopter purchased by the Philippines Air Force from Poland crashed during a night-time training flight, killing all six on board. The accident prompted the Philippines Air Force to ground the entire Black Hawk fleet.