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[FoxNews] U.S. Indo-Pacific Command says 3 defense contractors also involved in fatal crashA U.S. military service member and three defense contractors died Thursday in the Philippines after their surveillance flight crashed, officials say.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the aircraft contracted by the Department of Defense went down in the southern province of Maguindanao del Sur
| …in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Moslem Mindanao. Between resentful remnants of the the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF — get your snickers out, dear Reader, then we’ll go on) and ISIS-linked Daulah Islamiyah, successor to the infamous Maute Group, the region remains a hotbed of Islamic militancy… |
"We can confirm no survivors of the crash. There were four personnel on board, including one U.S. military service member and three defense contractors," it added.
The aircraft involved in the crash was a U.S. Marine Corps Beechcraft King Air 350, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The names of those involved are being withheld pending next of kin notification.
Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster-mitigation officer, told the Associated Press that she received reports that residents saw smoke coming from the plane and heard an explosion before the aircraft plummeted to the ground about half a mile from a cluster of farmhouses.
A water buffalo on the ground was also killed as a result of the plane crash, local officials said.
U.S. forces have been deployed in a Philippine military camp in the country's south for decades to help provide advice and training to Filipino forces battling Muslim militants, the AP reported.
The region is the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.