Crash prompted a temporary grounding of the Air Force’s SF-260 fleet
Four pilots were killed after two Philippine air force trainer aircraft crashed during a training flight at an air base south of the capital Manila, the military said on Saturday.
A video of the incident showed that the planes collided mid-air.The accident occurred on Friday at Fernando Air Base in Batangas province and involved two SF-260 aircraft, the Philippine Air Force said in a statement.Both aircraft crashed within the grounds of the air base. No other casualties were reported, news agency Reuters reported.
The air force has temporarily grounded its fleet of SF-260 trainer aircraft pending an investigation into the cause of the crash.The incident follows another fatal crash involving the same aircraft type in May, when two pilots were killed after an SF-260 went down in a mountainous area in the northern Philippines. In 2023, another SF-260 TP Marchetti crashed during a training flight, killing two pilots.