Four people are dead after a plane contracted by the U.S. military crashed in the Philippines Thursday, ABC News reported. U.S. Embassy spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay said President Donald Trump's Pentagon had hired the aircraft which went down in Maguindanao del Sur province.
The crash killed everyone on board and a water buffalo on the ground. According to Fox News, it happened during a "routine mission in support of U.S.-Philippine security cooperation activities," a statement from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Friday.
"The aircraft was providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies," the statement added. They have not released the names of the people killed.
"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," the statement added.
Officials are still investigating the cause of the crash. Windy Beaty, the area's provincial disaster mitigation officer, said that people on the ground observed that the plane was smoking and then exploded before crashing to the ground in a rice field.
According to a senior U.S. defense official, the aircraft was a U.S. Marine Corps Beechcraft King Air 350. There isn't word on the mission for the service member and three defense contractors aboard the ill-fated plane.
However, American service members have been routinely deployed to the Philippines for decades. They have been instrumental in helping train the Philippine military as it fights back Muslim extremists.
Although the nation is a majority Roman Catholic, the region where the crash happened is part of the Muslim stronghold. The nation also serves as a strategic location for the Pentagon to stave off Chinese communist encroachment into surrounding nations.
In fact, recent naval drills involving American and Philippine military in the area have elicited ire from China because they were near the South China Sea, which Bejing insists is its own, the Associated Press reported. The communist nation is adding to the mounting tension with its objections.
On Wednesday, the U.S. 7th Fleet engaged in a "multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity" with its counterparts from Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. It was conducted in the Exclusive Economic Zone that the Philippines declares as its own.
The fleet acknowledged that these exercises were taking place in the area but did not give any specifics. However, it noted in a statement that they are meant to "strengthen the interoperability of our defense/armed forces doctrines, tactics, techniques, and procedures."
Additional drills were planned for Japan, France, and the U.S. in the Philippines Sea. The fleet said that the drill is "designed to advance coordination and cooperation between French, Japanese, and U.S. maritime forces while simultaneously demonstrating capabilities in multi-domain operations."
On Thursday, a spokesperson for China's Southern Theater Command accused the Philippines of "colluding with outside countries to organize ‘so-called joint patrols'" to "destabilize the region." Tian Junli called the drills "an attempt to endorse its ‘illegal claims’ in the South China Sea and 'undermine China’s maritime rights and interests.'"
Though there is no official connection between the plane crash and the military exercise, it's clear that the region is on edge and remaining vigilant against the threats they face. Regardless of the stated mission of the aircraft that crased, it's a tragedy that four people lost their lives.
