𝗖-130 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 | 05 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 2021 | SALUTE TO THE BRAVE SOLDIERS | PRAYERS TO THE VICTIMS

A Philippine Air Force (PAF) C130 transport plane carrying 96 personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) crash landed in Patikul, Sulu on Sunday morning,
July 4, killing at least 45 individuals.
Some jumped free, officials said, in the country's worst military air disaster in nearly 30 years.
Pictures from the scene showed flames and smoke pouring from wreckage strewn among coconut palms as men in combat uniform milled around, while a column of thick black smoke rose into the sky.
The Lockheed C-130 transport aircraft, carrying troops bound for counter-insurgency operations.
The plane had attempted to land at Jolo airport, but overshot the runway without touching down. It failed to regain enough power and height and crashed at nearby Patikul.
"A number of soldiers were seen jumping out of the aircraft before it hit the ground, sparing them from the explosion caused by the crash," the Joint Task Force Sulu said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear how many jumped or whether they had survived.
Military chief Cirilito Sobejana said the plane had "missed the runway trying to regain power".
The Department of National Defence said 45 people had been killed, including three civilians on the ground, while 53 were injured, including four civilians. Five military personnel were still missing.
A military spokesman, Colonel Edgard Arevalo, said there was no sign of any attack on the plane, but an investigation had yet to begin as efforts were focused on rescue and treatment.
The military command said the soldiers aboard had the rank of private and were being deployed to their battalions. They were flying to the provincial airport of Jolo from Laguindingan, about 460 km (290 miles) to the northeast.
The army in the sprawling Philippine archipelago has been fighting a long war against Islamist militants from Abu Sayyaf and other factions.
"They were supposed to join us in our fight against terrorism," said Commander William N. Gonzales of Joint Task Force Sulu.
Jolo airport has a 1,200-metre runway that usually takes civilian turboprop flights though occasionally some military flights, according to a Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesperson.
Jolo island, part of the Sulu archipelago, is about 950 km (600 miles) south of the capital, Manila.
The Lockheed C-130H Hercules aircraft, with registration 5125, had only recently arrived in the Philippines.
It was one of two aircraft provided by the U.S. government through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, a government website said in January. It quoted an air force spokesman as saying the aircraft would boost capability for heavy airlift missions.
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| MILITARY PROFESSIONALISM |
Men who adopt the profession of arms submit to their own free will
to a law of perpetual constraint of their own accord.
They resist their right to live where they choose,
to say what they think, to dress as they like.
It needs but an order to settle from their family and dislocate their normal lives.
In the world of command they must rise, march, run,
endure bad weather, go without sleep or food,
be isolated in some distant post, work until they drop.
If they drop in their tracks, if their ashes are scattered in the four winds,
that is all part and parcel of their job.
-Charles de Gaulle, French General and Statesman.