MANILA (AFP) – A Philippines FA-50 fighter jet and its two-man crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday.
Air force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops”.
While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed to AFP that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting rebels in Mindanao’s Bukidnon province.
Lieutenant-Colonel Francisco Garello of the 4th Infantry Division told AFP that air support had been called in overnight during a firefight with the New People’s Army in a mountainous area.
“There was a firefight between the 403rd Infantry Brigade (Philippine Army) and they made a request for air support, so the air force supported the encounter,” said Garello. The long-running Maoist insurgency is now believed to have fewer than 2,000 guerrilla fighters.
In an earlier statement, the Philippine Air Force said the missing jet had lost contact with other fighters in the group “minutes before reaching its target area”. The fighters flew out of Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base, which shares a runway with the airport in Cebu, the Philippines’ second-largest city. The Philippines has a dozen of the fighters purchased from South Korea in the last decade.
