Most of the 96 people on board the C-130 Hercules transport plane were recent army graduates heading in to join the fight in an Islamist militant stronghold.
Patikul, Philippines — Philippine security forces searched among coconut trees on a remote southern island Monday for the flight data boxes of an aircraft that crashed and killed 52 people in one of the country’s worst military air disasters. The C-130 Hercules transport plane was carrying 96 people, most of them recent army graduates, when it overshot the runway on Sunday while trying to land on Jolo island in Sulu province — a haven for Islamist militants. The plane “skidded” and burst into flames in a village, killing 52 people including 49 military personnel and three civilians, said military spokesman Major General Edgard Arevalo. Another 51 were injured, most of them soldiers. It was not clear if the pilots were among the survivors. “This is one of the worst tragic incidents that happened in our armed forces,” Arevalo said. The three civilians killed were not on the flight and had been working in a quarry, village leader Tanda Hailid told AFP. They were relatives of Agga Ahaddi, who was lucky to survive the crash. He and his child were outside when the plane ploughed through their house and then a neighbor’s home.
