MANILA, Jul 5 (NNN-PNA) – The death toll from the military plane crash in the southern Philippines has risen to 50, the defence department said today.
All 96 passengers and crew in the C-130H aircraft that crashed upon landing before noon yesterday, on Jolo island in Sulu province, have been accounted for, the Department of National Defence said.
The department said, 47 soldiers perished in the crash, while 49 others were injured, adding that, three civilians on the ground were also killed and four others injured.
Major General Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson, said, retrieval operations for plane parts, including the black box, are ongoing at the crash site. An investigation team is on the way to Sulu, he told a radio interview.
The plane was carrying newly-trained army personnel, when it crashed and burst into flames, after overshooting the runway, at around 11:30 a.m. local time, yesterday.
Minutes after the crash, troops and civilian volunteers rushed to the site, for search and rescue. “Eyewitnesses said, a number of soldiers were seen jumping out of the aircraft, before it hit the ground, sparing them from the explosion,” the military said.
According to Philippine Air Force (PAF) documents, the crashed plane was a second-hand C-130 Hercules, recently purchased from the U.S. military.
The PAF said in an official statement that, the aircraft has a tail number “5125.” Military documents showed that the aircraft arrived in the Philippines in Jan, this year. The United States officially turned over the plane during a ceremony in Feb.
“The C-130H NR 5125 is the first of the two C-130H aircraft, granted by the U.S. government, through the Security Cooperation Assistance,” the PAF said, in Jan.
In his speech during the turn-over ceremony in Feb, Philippine Defence Secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, confirmed that the country acquired the two C-130H aircraft through security cooperation assistance.
“Out of the total cost of 2.5 billion pesos (roughly 50.89 million U.S. dollars), the Philippines will only pay 1.6 billion pesos (roughly 32.57 million U.S. dollars),” Lorenzana said, adding that, the U.S. agreed to “shoulder” the rest of the cost.
The C-130H aircraft NR 5125 first flew in 1988, and served in the U.S. Air Force until it was put in storage in 2016, before it was sold and delivered to the PAF in Jan, 2021, according to local media reports.– NNN-PNA
