The United States military surveillance flight is blocked in the Philippines, killing 4

A member of the US military service and three defense contractors died Thursday in the Philippines after their surveillance flight crashed, authorities say.

The United States Indo-Pacific command said that the plane hired by the Department of Defense fell in the southern province of Maguindanao del Sur and “was providing intelligence, surveillance and recognition support at the request of our Filipino allies.”

“The incident occurred during a routine mission in support of US security cooperation activities.”

“We cannot confirm that there are no survivors of the accident. There were four personnel on board, including a member of the US military service and three defense contractors,” he added.

The remains of the plane in the province of Maguindanao del Sur, the Philippines, after the accident on Thursday, February 6. (Sam Mala/UGC through AP)

The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

The names of those involved are retaining waiting for Kin’s notification.

Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster mitigation officer, told Associated Press that he received reports that the residents saw smoke from the plane and listened to an explosion before the plane collapsed to the ground approximately half a mile of a group of farm .

A water buffalo on the ground was also killed as a result of the plane crash, local officials said.

The US forces have been deployed in a Filipino military camp in the south of the country to help provide advice and training to the Philippine Forces fighting Muslim militants, the AP reported.

The region is the homeland of minority Muslims in the Catholic nation in a large part Roman.

Associated Press contributed to this report.