The Philippine Ministry of National Defense said that a US C-146A transport aircraft had an incident while participating in a road landing exercise in Laoac town, Pangasinan province. According to the announcement, no civilians were injured and the incident is being investigated.
Philippine officials said the plane landed successfully, but deviated and collided with a concrete median strip during takeoff from the bypass. The incident injured all 5 US military personnel on board.
The pilot and two soldiers were taken to the hospital, and the other two soldiers were treated on the spot. The plane was damaged after the collision, but the extent of the damage has not been announced.
Three Philippine officials said this was a take-off and landing training session from a "replacement landing pad", to prepare for the situation of not being able to use the conventional airport due to natural disasters or unexpected incidents. The operation was planned and coordinated with civil, police and military officials of the host country.
The Indian Ocean - Pacific Command of the US military (INDOPACOM) later confirmed that two soldiers had been taken to medical facilities for treatment. One person was discharged from the hospital, the other was in stable condition. INDOPACOM did not comment on the details provided by the Philippines, nor did it explain the difference in the number of injured people.
The US military is allowed to participate in training in the Philippines under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). Recent large-scale exercises between the two countries focus on supporting the Philippines in protecting territorial interests, as well as promoting freedom of navigation and aviation in the South China Sea.
The C-146A Wolfhound transport aircraft is a militarized version of the Dornier 328 passenger aircraft, used by the US Air Force since 2011. The C-146A squadron belongs to the US Air Force Special Operations Command, responsible for quickly transporting personnel and supplies to conventional or makeshift airports around the globe.
The aircraft has a crew of three, a maximum take-off weight of nearly 14 tons and an operating range of about 2,800km when carrying 900kg of cargo. The factory price of each aircraft is about 17.6 million USD.
