Philippine Plane Crash Kills 2, Another Carrying 6 Missing

While searching for a private plane carrying six passengers that vanished the day before in the hilly north, a Philippine air force plane crashed on a farm northwest of Manila on Wednesday, killing the two people on board.

According to air force spokeswoman Col. Maria Consuelo Castillo, the SF-260 plane crashed into a rice field in Bataan province as it was on a training flight from Sangley airport in Cavite province, south of Manila.

The remains of the two men were recovered from the debris, and police investigator Edgardo Delos Santos told The Associated Press by phone from the scene that witnesses had seen the plane swiftly fall seemingly out of control before hitting the rice field.

Other SF-260s that are utilised for training and counterinsurgency operations have been grounded by the air force, according to Castillo. The air force announced that an inquiry would be conducted to ascertain the crash's cause.

The Philippine military, which is among the most impoverished in Asia, has been waging long-standing Muslim and communist insurgencies, defending Philippine territorial waters, and modernising its air force and navy in particular despite funding issues.

Separately, during a scheduled 30-minute trip Tuesday in northern Isabela province, a single-engine Cessna carrying six people lost contact with airport tower staff approximately four minutes after departure, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

According to the civil aviation department, a comprehensive search and rescue was still ongoing on Wednesday. It did not list the passengers' names.

The Philippine Air Force claimed that inclement weather prevented its helicopters from taking flight to join the search in Isabela.