The aircraft was on a mission, providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at the request of US Philippine allies.

One United States service member and three defense contractors are dead after a small airplane crashed in the Philippines on Thursday, officials said.

A U.S. Marine and and three Pentagon contractors died after an aircraft went down in the Philippines Thursday, officials said.

Officials say a U.S. military-contracted plane has crashed in a rice field in the southern Philippines, killing all four people on board

The aircraft was conducting a routine mission “providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies,” officials said.

Despite recent headlines, U.S. commercial airline travel has become increasingly safe. An American Airlines regional jet collided with a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River, killing 67 people. A private medical jet crashed in Philadelphia, with 7 lives lost.

A DOD-contracted aircraft flying an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission crashed in the Philippines, killing all four on board, federal officials said.

The aircraft was conducting a routine mission “providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies,” US Indo-Pacific Command said.