Chattanooga Times Free Press

Philippine military’s worst air disaster kills 52, wounds 51

- BY JIM GOMEZ

MANILA, Philippine­s — Philippine troops found the last five dead from the crash of a transport aircraft in the south and two wounded survivors died Monday, raising the death toll to 52 in the military’s worst air disaster, officials said.

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules was carrying 96 people, mostly combat troops, when it overshot the runway while landing Sunday at the Jolo airport in Sulu province, military officials said. It slammed into a coconut grove beyond the airport and burst into flames in a disaster witnessed by horrified soldiers and villagers.

Troops, police and firefighte­rs rescued 49 injured military personnel, including a few who jumped off the aircraft before it exploded and was gutted by fire. Two later died. Seven people on the ground were hit by aircraft parts and debris and three of them died, the military said.

The plane was one of two refurbishe­d U.S. Air Force aircraft handed over to the Philippine­s, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia, as part of military assistance this year.

The aircraft earlier had carried two-star Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., his wife and three children from Manila to southern Cagayan de Oro city, where he became the new military regional commander on Monday.

Brawner was stunned to learn the plane he’d just flown on had crashed. “We’re very thankful that we were spared, but extremely sad that so many lost their lives,” Brawner told The Associated Press.

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