MANILA, Philippines – An aircraft contracted by the U.S. Department of Defense has crashed in the southern Philippines killing all four people on board, including a U.S. service member, said the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
The aircraft, identified by police as a Beechcraft King Air 300 with registration number N349CA, crashed on Thursday afternoon in Maguindanao del Sur province, media reported.
The U.S. military command said in a statement that the plane was “providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies.”
“The incident occurred during a routine mission in support of U.S.-Philippine security cooperation activities.”
One U.S. military service member and three defense contractors died in the crash. The command did not give the nationality of the three contractors.
The cause is under investigation, the Indo-Pacific Command said.
Media reported that the airplane crashed in a rice field in Barangay Malatimon, Maguindanao. Residents heard an explosion and saw smoke billowing from the plane before it came down, the AP news agency said.
The King Air 300 is a twin-engine turboprop often used by military and law enforcement authorities to conduct search and rescue, reconnaissance and surveillance, as well as other special operations.
It is designed and manufactured by Beechcraft Augsburg, a subsidiary of U.S. aircraft company Textron Aviation.
U.S. military personnel with an intelligence unit have been deployed in the southern Philippines to help local forces fighting against Muslim militants.
In 2017, with intelligence support provided by U.S. military aircraft the Philippine government successfully ended a months-long siege by Islamic State militants in the southern city of Marawi.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
RFA Staff in Taipei contributed to this report.