Four people who were killed in a military aircraft crash in the southeastern Philippines on Thursday have been identified as the US Marine and three of their defense vendors.
The US Indo-Pacific Command reports that the US-contracted Beechcraft Super King Air B300 crashed in Maguindanao del Sur state while carrying out a security mission at the demand of Philippine government. The cause of the collision remains under investigation.
The aircraft crashed in a grain field in Maguindanao del Sur territory, close to the town of Ampatuan, according to the news agency AP. Before the aircraft crashed, the local government claimed that residents heard an explosion and saw smoke before getting about half a mile from a group of farmhouses.
A water bison on the ground was killed, but no residents were reported injured.
The crashed aircraft was identified as a Beechcraft Super King Air B300 with the neck range N349CA, which was registered to the defense firm Metrea, according to the news agency AFP. The business provides flying intelligence, surveillance, and surveillance services to military agencies.
The Spanish government has classified information of the accident as private, and an investigation is underway.
Rhea Martin, a provincial hero, reported to AFP that her team had discovered the bodies of all four victims close to the shipwreck. ” The helicopter was cut in half”, she described, highlighting the magnitude of the accident.
A US defense official confirmed to CNN that the US company associate killed in the event was a Marine. Nevertheless, it remains questionable whether the three military companies were even US citizens.
The aircraft apparently resembled a Beechcraft King Air 350, a model that is often employed in ISR operations.
The event occurred one evening after Gilberto Teodoro, Jr., the newly appointed US defense director, reportedly contacted Gilberto Teodoro, Jr., the country’s secretary of national defense. According to CNN, the two discussed boosting defense ties and preventing war in the South China Sea.
The US has much been operating in the southern Philippines, where British forces provide knowledge and education to Filipino soldiers battling Islamic State-linked militants.
