The identities of four more military personnel who died in the tragic C-130 plane crash in Patikul, Sulu earlier this month have already been confirmed, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced Friday, July 30.
Captain Jonathan Zata, AFP public affairs chief, identified the fatalities as Sergeant Jelson Sadjail, Corporal Alhamin Salahuddin, and Privates First Class Alzin Hawrani and Nazer Albaracin. All four were Philippine Army (PA) personnel.
"The AFP, through the Western Mindanao Command, has reached out to the loved ones of the identified personnel while their remains are being prepared for transport and proper burial," Zata said.
With this development, the military has now identified a total of 33 cadavers while 17 others were still undergoing a "tedious process of identification" to ensure that the proper bodies will be turned over to their families.
The investigation to determine the cause of the plane crash has yet to reach a breakthrough as experts from the United States military were still analyzing the contents of the flight data recorder and voice cockpit recorder of the ill-fated cargo plane.
The probe on the incident will mark its fourth week on Wednesday.
On July 4, a C-130 plane of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) with tail gate no. 5125 crashed on a coconut plantation in Barangay Bangkal while it was attempting to land at the Jolo Airport.
The plane was carrying 96 military personnel, 50 of them died on the crash. Three civilians were also killed in the incident that is considered as one of the worst aviation accidents in the history of the Philippine military.
Most of those killed had ranks of Private who just finished their military training and were on their first deployment for counter-terrorism operations in the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)-infested province of Sulu.