A member of the United States service and three defense contractors are dead after a small plane crashed in the Philippines on Thursday, officials said.
The plane was “providing intelligence, surveillance and recognition support” at the request of allies in the Philippines, said the public affairs of the US Pacific Command Command. UU. In a press release. It was a routine mission “in support of US security cooperation activities.” The service member and defense contractors were the only people aboard the plane.
The plane crashed into a rice field near Ampatuan, a small municipality in the province of southern Maguindanao del Sur.
Sam Mala / AP
The cause of the accident is under investigation, according to the command.
Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster mitigation officer, told Associated Press that he received reports that residents saw smoke from the plane and listened to an explosion before the plane collapsed to the ground less than a kilometer (approximately half a mile) of a group of farm.
Four bodies were recovered from the site. No one on the ground was injured, but a water buffalo was killed in the incident.
Sam Mala / AP
The service member and contractors have not yet been identified, according to the command, awaiting standard notifications.
The US forces have been deployed in a Filipino military camp in the south of the country to help provide advice and training to the Philippine Forces fighting Muslim militants, said Associated Press. The region is the homeland of minority Muslims in the Catholic nation in a large part Roman.
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