Two Philippine Air Force Trainer Planes Collide During Training Flight: Four Pilots Killed, SF-260 Fleet Grounded
At Fernando Air Base in Lipa, Batangas province, south of Manila, two Philippine Air Force SF-260 trainer aircraft crashed during a training flight on Friday, killing all four pilots aboard, the Philippine military said on Saturday, October 24. (GSM, reporting from Reuters)
According to a Philippine Air Force statement, the accident occurred at about 3:51 p.m. on Friday, October 23, and both aircraft came down within the grounds of the air base, with no other casualties. Two Philippine officials familiar with the incident told The Associated Press that the aircraft collided in midair at low altitude, and local media also reported a midair collision. A witness told AP that one of the two-seat aircraft came down near military personnel barracks inside the base.
The Air Force has temporarily grounded its entire fleet of SF-260 aircraft pending an investigation into the cause of the accident. The service has not released the names of the pilots who were killed. The SF-260 is an Italian-built light propeller aircraft used as the basic trainer on which Philippine cadets fly before moving on to jets; the aircraft involved were acquired from Italy.
It is the type's latest fatal accident in the Philippines: in May this year, two pilots were killed when an SF-260 trainer crashed in a mountainous area in the northern Philippines, and another SF-260 crashed during a training flight in 2023, also killing two pilots. Reuters noted in background reporting that the Philippine military also used SF-260 aircraft during months of air strikes on Marawi City in the south in 2017, after militants loyal to the Islamic State group seized the area.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 停在停机坪上的菲律宾空军 SF-260 飞机（资料图，非事故飞机）。照片：菲律宾空军，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Philippine Air Force SF-260 aircraft on an apron (file photo; not the aircraft involved). Photo: Philippine Air Force, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
