At least 4 killed after US military-contracted plane crashes in southern Philippines A U.S. military-contracted plane crashed in a rice field in the southern Philippines Thursday, killing all four people on board, U.S. Embassy and Philippine officials said.
The plane that crashed in the southern province was contracted by the U.S. military, U.S. Embassy spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay told The Associated Press, adding that the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command will issue a more detailed statement on the plane crash.
Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster-mitigation officer, told the AP that she received reports that residents saw smoke coming from the plane and heard an explosion before the aircraft plummeted to the ground less than a kilometer (about half a mile) from a cluster of farmhouses.
The bodies of four people who appeared to be foreign nationals were retrieved from the wreckage in Ampatuan town, said Ameer Jehad Tim Ambolodto, a safety officer of Maguindanao del Sur.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines confirmed the crash of a light plane in Maguindanao del Sur province.
