MANILA (Reuters) – Two Philippine air force pilots were killed after their aircraft crashed during an anti-insurgency mission in a southern province, military officials said on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear when the accident occurred but the Philippine Air Force said the FA-50 fighter lost contact with other aircraft involved in the mission in Bukidnon province shortly after midnight on March 4, prompting a search-and-rescue operation.
The wreckage of the jet fighter, and the two pilots, were found in the Kalatungan mountains in the southern Mindanao region on Wednesday, military officials said.
“The wreckage points to it being a crash,” Air Force spokesperson Consuelo Castillo told reporters in a virtual briefing, adding an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the accident.
The remaining 11 South Korean-built FA-50 jets have been grounded following the accident, Castillo added.
The Philippines acquired 12 FA-50s from South Korea in 2014 as part of a military modernisation programme to boost internal security and improve its capability to defend its maritime borders against China in the South China Sea.
“Our intention is to put them back out of grounding immediately to not disrupt our operations too much,” Castillo said.
(Reporting by Mikhail Flores and Karen Lema. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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