Four people were killed when a private plane crashed in a rice field in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur, on Thursday afternoon, officials said.
Ameer Jehad Ambolodto, the provincial disaster response officer, confirmed that emergency responders recovered the bodies of four victims, described as Caucasian-looking men, from the wreckage of the Beech King Air 350 with aircraft registration number N349CA.
“We have yet to confirm the identities of the victims,” Ambolodto said.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing the aircraft flying low over Ampatuan, as if surveying the area, before it suddenly nose-dived into an open field in Barangay Malatimon.
Videos circulating on social media showed the wreckage, along with a water buffalo that was fatally injured in the crash.
Police and military personnel have secured the crash site while awaiting investigators from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
Authorities have yet to determine the flight’s purpose and origin.
Meanwhile, the United States Embassy in Manila said the plane was contracted by the US military but did not provide details and deferred to the US Indo-Pacific Command.
“We can confirm that a US military contracted aircraft crashed in Maguindanao Del Sur on February 6. For further information, we refer you to US Indo-Pacific Command,” Embassy spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay said in a text message to the Philippine News Agency.(PNA)
