Wreckage of a US military-contracted plane in a rice field in Maguindanao del Sur province, Philippines. (AP: Sam Mala)
In short:
A US military service member and three defence contractors have been killed in a plane crash in the southern Philippines.
The aircraft had been contracted by the US military for "intelligence and surveillance support".
Officials say all on board the light plane were killed and the cause of the crash is unknown.
Four people, including a US military service member and three defence contractors, have been killed after a light plane crashed into rice fields in the southern Philippines on Thursday.
US Embassy and Philippine officials confirmed the deaths of all on-board near the farming municipality of Ampatuan on Mindanao island.Â
In a statement, the US military said it had contracted the aircraft and the plane was carrying out intelligence and surveillance support.
A map of the plane crash that killed four people near the farming municipality of Ampatuan on Mindanao island. (ABC News)
Ameer Jehad Tim Ambolodto, safety officer of Maguindanao del Sur, said the bodies of four people who appeared to be foreign nationals had been retrieved from the wreckage.
None of those killed have been identified.
Regional police spokesman Jopy Ventura said the plane had struck and killed a water buffalo during the crash.
He said the crash site has been cordoned off with police and soldiers deployed to prevent potential tampering with evidence.
Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster-mitigation officer, said residents reported seeing smoke coming from the plane and heard an explosion before the aircraft plummeted to the ground less than a kilometer from a cluster of farmhouses.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines confirmed the crash of a small plane in Maguindanao del Sur province.Â
A small plane crash site in the southern Philippines crash has been cordoned off with police and soldiers deployed to prevent potential tampering with evidence. (AP: Sam Mala)
Police said they had not yet determined the cause of the crash of the fixed-wing aircraft.
Small numbers of American troops are regularly put on short-term rotational deployments in the Philippines, where the US military has helped provide intelligence to troops battling militants linked to the Islamic State group that remain active on Mindanao.
The plane's tail number, identified by police as N349CA, was registered to defence firm Metrea, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware, which identified it as a Beechcraft Super King Air B300.
The Metra website describes the company as a "leading provider of effects-as-a-service to national security partners across multiple domains and over a dozen mission areas".
-AFP/AP
