A Philippine military transport plane crashed on Holo Island in the southern province of Sulu on the 4th local time, killing at least 42 of the 96 people on board, AFP and Reuters reported.
Philippine military authorities announced that at 11:30 a.m. on the same day, a C-130H transport plane crashed in the mountainous area of Patikul while attempting to land on the island alone.
The plane that crashed was carrying 96 people, including three pilots and five crew members.
Of these, 42 were killed, 49 injured, and 5 missing.
Three civilians near the crash site were also killed and four were injured.
The surviving soldiers jumped out of the plane just before the plane crashed into the ground, avoiding the explosion, military officials said.
The exact cause of the crash is not yet known, but a military spokeswoman said there were no signs that the plane was attacked.
According to a military official who requested anonymity, the airport where the crashed transport plane was trying to land was difficult to land because the runway was shorter than other airports in the Philippines.
It has been confirmed that the soldiers on board recently completed basic military training and boarded a plane from Cagayan de Oro, southern Mindanao, to be deployed to areas where Islamic rebels are active.
Filipino government forces and Islamic rebel Abu Sayyaf are fighting in the mountainous areas of Holo Island.