An American service member and three defense contractors were killed when a security flight crashed in the southern Philippines on Thursday.
The plane carried out a routine mission that “carried out a routine mission at the request of our Filipino allies”, said the Command of the American Indo-Pacific command when it crashed in a rice field.
The bodies of the four people were picked up from the wreck in the city of Ampatuan, said Ameer Jehad Tim Ambolodto, a security officer of Maguindanao del Sur.
Indo-Pacific Command said that the names of the crew were withheld pending family reports.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines also confirmed the crash of a light aircraft in the province of Maguindanao del Sur
Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster animal officer, told The Associated Press that they received reports that residents saw smoke coming out of the plane and heard an explosion before the plane dropped about half a miles of a cluster of farms on the ground.
No one was injured on or near the crash location, which was deposited by troops, Beaty said.
A water buffalo on the ground was killed as a result of the aircraft crash, local officials said.
An American service member and three defense contractors were killed when a security flight crashed in the Philippines
American troops have been deployed for decades in a Philippine military camp in the south of the country to give advice and training to Filipino troops fighting against Muslim militants.
The region is the home country of minority muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.
