At least 31 people were eliminated, including two civilians on the ground, and it was feared that the toll would climb.The head of the Philippine armed forces, Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, stated the plane missed out on a runway while trying to land and crashed near a town called Bangkal in the town of Patikul, a stronghold of the militant group known as Abu Sayyaf.Maj. Last month, a newly obtained Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a night training flight, killing six people onboard.That crash occurred about 2 months after another helicopter, an MG-520 attack chopper, crashed in the main Philippines, eliminating its pilot. And in January, a reconditioned UH-1H Vietnam War-era helicopter crashed in the south, killing seven soldiers.In 2008, a Philippine Air Force C-130 crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao, killing nine team members and 2 travelers aboard.The soldiers on the airplane that crashed on Sunday were being flown to Jolo to bolster the militarys operations against Abu Sayyaf, a little Islamist group that the Philippine government considers a terrorist organization.A faction of Abu Sayyaf, which has actually promised allegiance to the Islamic State, was blamed for the January 2019 battle of a cathedral on Jolo, which was brought out by an Indonesian couple and killed at least 23 people.