Four Philippine Air Force pilots died on Friday, October 23, when two SF-260 trainer aircraft went down inside Fernando Air Base in Lipa City, south of Manila. It’s the second fatal SF-260 crash in the country in five months.
The air force has grounded every SF-260 it flies while investigators work out what happened. It hasn’t released the pilots’ names, saying it is withholding them at the families’ request.
What has the Philippine Air Force confirmed about the SF-260 crash?
The air force “mourns the loss of four pilots in an aviation accident involving two SF-260 aircraft,” spokesperson Colonel Alvin Jay Capinguian said on Saturday, The Independent reported.
The accident happened at about 3:51 in the afternoon, local time, during a training flight.
Both planes “went down within the base perimeter, with no other casualties reported,” the statement said, according to the Daily Tribune. “An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the accident,” it added.
The official statement doesn’t use the word “collision.” Two Philippine officials told the Associated Press the planes collided in flight. They spoke anonymously because they weren’t authorized to discuss it, according to AP’s report. A witness told AP that one of the two-seat planes came down near barracks on the base.
The air force hasn’t said how many people were in each plane or what the training flight involved. It has offered no cause, and until investigators report, nobody else should either.
Why is the whole SF-260 fleet grounded?
All SF-260 aircraft “have been temporarily grounded as a precautionary safety measure,” the air force said, The Manila Times reported. It hasn’t said how long that will last or how many planes it covers.
Grounding a fleet after a fatal accident is routine. It doesn’t mean investigators have found a fault with the aircraft. It gives them time to inspect the other planes before anyone flies them again.
The pause still costs the air force. Its spokeswoman called the SF-260 a “basic trainer aircraft” in 2023. New military pilots learn to fly in it, so a long grounding holds up the next class.
What is the SF-260, and has it crashed before?
The SF-260 is a small Italian design built by SIAI-Marchetti. The Philippines bought its planes from Italy, AP reported. The air force flies piston-engine trainers and a turboprop version, the SF-260TP, which its 15th Strike Wing has used as a light attack plane.
That attack version has seen combat. The military used SF-260s to bomb Islamic State-linked fighters who seized parts of Marawi City in 2017, The Independent reported.
The type has had a run of fatal accidents:
- January 25, 2023: An SF-260TP from the 15th Strike Wing crashed into a rice field in Pilar, Bataan, killing both pilots, BenarNews reported. The spokeswoman’s “basic trainer” description comes from that report.
- May 20, 2026: An SF-260 crashed on a forested mountain in Tuba, Benguet, on a cross-country training flight to Baguio City. The dead were First Lieutenant Ruth Angelique Pasos, an instructor, and Second Lieutenant Cherky Embudo, a student, PTV News reported.
- October 23, 2026: Four pilots died at Fernando Air Base, the deadliest of the three.
The May flight also took off from Fernando Air Base. The air force hasn’t said whether that investigation is finished or what it found. Nothing made public links the two accidents.
Why does a Philippine training crash matter to the US?
The Philippines is one of America’s oldest allies in Asia. Under a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, each country pledges to act if the other is attacked in the Pacific.
Washington has been paying to modernize the Philippine military as tensions with China rise at sea. Chinese ships have repeatedly confronted Philippine vessels, as when two Chinese ships collided while chasing a Philippine boat in 2025. In July 2024 the US pledged $500 million in military financing for the Philippines, USNI News reported.
AP called the crash a setback for a military that has long struggled to modernize on a thin budget. The SF-260 has no direct US role. The link is the pilot pipeline: a US ally’s air force needs a steady supply of new aviators, and its basic trainer is now on the ground. China’s air activity nearby keeps growing too, including military drones reported flying “dark” over the South China Sea this year.
When will the investigation report?
The air force hasn’t given a date for findings or for the SF-260s to fly again. It said it is helping the families and asked the public to respect their privacy.
The next steps to watch are the release of the pilots’ names, if the families agree, and a decision on lifting the grounding.
