A U.S.
military-contracted airplane crashed in a rice field in the southern Philippines Thursday, eliminating all four individuals on board, U.S.
Embassy and Philippine officials said.The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines verified the crash of a light plane in Maguindanao del Sur province.
It did not immediately supply other details.The plane that crashed in the southern province was contracted by the U.S.
military, U.S.
Embassy representative Kanishka Gangopadhyay told The Associated Press, adding that the U.S.
Indo-Pacific Command will release a more comprehensive declaration on the plane crash.The bodies of 4 people who appeared to be foreign nationals were retrieved from the wreckage in Ampatuan town, said Ameer Jehad Tim Ambolodto, a security officer of Maguindanao del Sur.Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster-mitigation officer, told the AP that she received reports that homeowners saw smoke coming from the plane and heard an explosion before the airplane plummeted to the ground less than a kilometer (about half a mile) from a cluster of farmhouses.Nobody was reported hurt on or near the crash website, which was cordoned off by troops, Beaty said.A water buffalo on the ground was likewise killed as a result of the plane crash, regional officials said.U.S.
forces have actually been released in a Philippine military camp in the countrys south for years to assist offer encourage and training to Filipino forces battling Muslim militants.
The area is the homeland of minority Muslims in the mainly Roman Catholic nation.Source: AP-- Agencies