Death Count In Philippine Military Plane Crash Rises To 50

Fifty people died when the plane "skidded" and burst into flames in a village, said Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Major General Edgard Arevalo.

Philippine security forces searched among coconut trees on a remote southern island Monday for the flight data boxes of an aircraft that crashed and killed 50 people in one of the country's worst military air disasters. The Hercules C-130 transport plane was carrying 96 people, most of them recent army graduates, when it overshot the runway while trying to land in sunny weather on Jolo island in Sulu province -- a haven for Islamic militants -- on Sunday. Fifty people, including 47 military personnel and three civilians, died when the plane "skidded" and burst into flames in a village, said Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Major General Edgard Arevalo. Another 53 were injured, most of them soldiers. It is not clear if the pilots were among the survivors.