The "black box," or flight data recorder, of the ill-fated C-130 plane that crashed in Patikul, Sulu, last Sunday noon has been recovered, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) disclosed on Tuesday.

The retrieval of the black box, according to AFP Chief Gen. Cirilito Sobejana would provide probers essentials clues to the crash, dubbed as one of the worst military accident on record that left 53 people, 49 of them soldiers, dead.

"The block box that was recovered is very important because we could listen to whatever conversation between the pilot and the aircrew of the aircraft," Sobejana said in a broadcast interview.

The box, he added, has been turned over to investigators for examination, even as interviews of witnesses on the ground are being conducted. The military had earlier vowed to undertake a transparent probe into the crash.

The box, he added, has been turned over to investigators for examination along with interviews of witnesses for  the investigation. The military has vowed to undertake a transparent probe of the incident.

Without precluding the results of the probe, Sobejana said in a separate broadcast interview that the C-130 plane touched the runway in Patikul, Sulu, three times as it attempted to land.

He said the plane bounced back thrice, and as the pilot attempted to regain control or power over the plane, it crashed and burst into flame, thus burning most of the fatalities.

While 49 soldiers and three civilians were killed immediately after the crash, 47 other soldiers survived. The soldiers aboard the ill-fated aircraft were on their way to Sulu for their first deployment.

President Duterte flew to Zamboanga City on Monday to personally check on the victims of the crash, where according to Sobejana, the Commander in Chief "bestowed" military awards to both the dead and injured soldiers.

"It was a very emotional activity. The President was really saddened of what had happened," he told in an interview with CNN Philippines's Pinky Webb. "The President's instruction was very clear that our air assets and other military equipment should be in good shape all the time."

Since the fatalities were charred beyond recognition, the top military chief admitted that it may be a little bit hard to properly identify all the remains, but vowed  military would do everything to ascertain the identities of the deceased before they would be turned over to their families.

This is the reason why the names of those killed have not been disclosed yet, although Sobejana had identified the pilot as Major Emmanuel Makalintal, who had 3,000 hours in flying a C-130.

Sobejana said that they were hoping to completely identify the remains not only through DNA, but with the dental records of the victims, since most of them are fresh graduates from military training.

Some of the soldiers, he said are also Tausug who are raring to go back to their province and help in the counterterrorism campaign of the government.

Sobejana is hoping that the United States will also help in the investigation since the C-130 was acquired by the military from the US.

The C-130 was delivered to the military on January 29 this year, although it has been used for 20 years before its transfer. The military, however, assured that the ill-fated aircraft was on tip top shape and properly maintained with 11,000 flying hours before any maintenance requirement.

Image courtesy of Joint Task Force-Sulu via AP

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