Cari amici, è di qualche giorno fa la notizia che un aereo militare non sia riuscito a imboccare la pista di atterraggio della base dell’isola di Jolo nella provincia di Sulu. I telegiornali parlano di un terribile schianto. Il velivolo è poi esploso in un rogo di fiamme impressionanti. Tante le vittime. Solo la scatola nera farà luce sulle cause del disastro.
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules was carrying 96 mostly combat troops when it overshot the runway while landing Sunday, July 4, 2021 at the Jolo airport in Sulu province, military officials said. It slammed into a coconut grove beyond the airport and burst into flames in a noontime disaster witnessed by horrified soldiers and villagers.
Troops, police and firefighters rescued 49 military personnel, including a few who jumped off the aircraft before it exploded and was gutted by fire. Seven people on the ground were hit by aircraft parts and debris, and three of them died, the military said.
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules was one of two refurbished U.S. Air Force aircraft handed over to the Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia, as part of military assistance this year.
The pilot in command, who had several years of experience flying a C-130 aircraft, was among of those 52 persons who died in the crash on Jolo island.
Philippine authorities said that the black box was retrieved on Monday and should enable investigators to listen to the conversations of the pilots and crew before the plane crashed.
Those who boarded the C-130 in Cagayan de Oro for the flight to Sulu were army troops, many of them newly trained recruits, to be deployed in the battle against Abu Sayyaf militants in the south.
President Rodrigo Duterte expanded the military presence in Sulu to a full division in late 2018, deploying hundreds of additional troops, air force aircraft and other combat equipment after vowing to wipe out Abu Sayyaf. The small but brutal group has been blacklisted by the U.S. and the Philippines as a terrorist organization for ransom kidnappings, bombings and beheadings.
The Philippine government has struggled for years to modernize its military, one of Asia’s least equipped, as it dealt with decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies and territorial rifts with China and other claimant countries in the South China Sea.
