4 dead as plane crashes into Maguindanao farm
AVIATION ACCIDENT Villagers mill around the debris of a plane that crashed into a rice farm in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur, on Thursday. Its pilot and three passengers died. —BHENGS B. SALINOGEN/CONTRIBUTOR
COTABATO CITY—A plane contracted by the United States military crashed into a rice farm in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao del Sur province on Thursday, killing its pilot and three passengers, a US Embassy official confirmed.
“We can confirm that a US military contracted aircraft crashed in Maguindano del Sur on Feb. 6,” Kanishka Gangopadhyay, the US Embassy spokesperson, told the Inquirer in a Viber message.
He did not provide further information and referred the Inquirer to the US Indo-Pacific Command.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines had yet to provide details of the crash as of 8 p.m. on Thursday.
The plane bore body number N349CA. A search with flightaware.com showed that the aircraft is a Beechcraft King Air 300 registered under Metrea Special Aerospace ISR Inc. based in Bethany, Oklahoma, that offers, among others, airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance services.
Ameer Jehad Ambolodto, provincial disaster risk reduction and management officer of Maguindanao del Sur, said a team of rescuers retrieved four bodies from the aircraft wreckage in the rice paddies of Barangay Malatimon at 4 p.m.
The rescuers, Ambolodto added, described the victims as “Caucasians.” Photos shared with the Inquirer also showed a Caucasian-looking man who lay dead near the plane wreckage.
Bobby Benito, a civic leader in the province, said the fatalities “appeared to be foreigners,” but their identities remained unknown.
Ambolodto said former Ampatuan Mayor Datu Rasul Sangki, who went to Malatimon, also confirmed to him the retrieval of four bodies from the crash site.
Based on the account of villagers, some of whom posted videos on social media, the crash happened around 2:30 p.m.
Carabao hit
Jeng Macapendeg, a resident, said he first noticed the plane circling the skies in the general area of the adjoining towns of Shariff Aguak, Ampatuan, and Datu Hofer.
“[Then] we heard a very strong thud and found the plane in an open rice field,” said another resident. “There was no explosion, only tiny smoke emanating from the plane.”
As the plane crashed, it hit a carabao and crumbled into pieces. The animal lost its snout from the impact and eventually died, probably from blood loss, according to residents.
Although Malatimon is just 3 kilometers from the town hall of nearby Mamasapano town, authorities took time to get there as travel takes time due to the circuitous road network amid the rice fields.
