A small aircraft contracted by the Pentagon crashed within the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing all 4 folks aboard, together with a member of the U.S. army, officers mentioned.
The aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air 300, crashed within the municipality of Ampatuan in Maguindanao del Sur Province on the southern island of Mindanao, the Philippine authorities mentioned on Friday. It was on its manner from Cebu Province to Cotabato Metropolis, the capital of a Muslim autonomous area on Mindanao.
The incident occurred throughout a “routine mission in help of U.S.-Philippine safety cooperation actions,” U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement on Friday.
“The plane was offering intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance help on the request of our Philippine allies,” the assertion mentioned. The names of these killed had been being withheld till relations could possibly be notified.
The Philippines is the oldest treaty ally of the US in Asia. U.S. troops have been deployed for years at a army camp in Mindanao to assist practice Philippine troopers combating Muslim separatist militants. In 2017, U.S. Particular Forces assisted the Philippine army because it fought Islamic State-linked militants within the southern metropolis of Marawi.
