MANILA (Philippines) : On Sunday around 11:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) a few kilometres (miles) from Jolo airport in Sulu province of Philippines a military transport plane C-130 aircraft crashed at Patikul. At least 17 people were killed and 40 injured had been rescured so far and were immediately taken to the 11th Infantry Division station hospital in Busbus, Jolo, Sulu. It seems the country’s worst military air disaster in nearly 30 years.
Defence Minister Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement that most of the 92 passengers were troops flying from Laguindingan Airport, some 460 km (290 miles) to the northeast. We were focussed on rescue and treatment first. Rescue and recovery was goining on.
Colonel Edgard Arevalo, the military spokesperson, said there was no sign of any attack on the plane. Our primary efforts were focussed on rescue and treatment and after that we would started investigation of this plane crash.
The island is about 950 km (600 miles) south of the capital, Manila. The Lockheed C-130H Hercules aircraft, registration 5125, had only arrived in the Philippines recently. It was one of two aircraft granted by the U.S. government through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, according to a government website announcement in January. It quoted an air force spokesman as saying the aircraft would provide enhanced capability for heavy airlift missions.
According to the website C-130.net, the plane that crashed has first flown in 1988. Specially, this model is for armed forces around the world. So many incidents in air had occurred in Philippines and had bad records in aiar safety. During a training mission in last month a Black Hawk helicopter crashed, 6 people were killed. According to the Aviation Safety Network, in 1993 30 people killed in Philippines Air Force C-130 crash. 11 people killed in Philippines Air Force plane crash 2008. An Philippines Boeing 737 was the country’s worst plane crash and killed 131 people.
