October 28, 2026: Philippine Air Force SF-260 Aircraft Crashes accelerated in the last 3 Years, none happened during Digong Duterte’s Term
According to the Data from the “Safety Database” of the “Aviation Safety Network (ASN)” Website, the crashes of the SF-260 Aircraft of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) accelerated in the last three Years, with none happening during the entire six Year Term of former President Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2022.
One SF-260TP crashed in January 2023, none in 2024 and 2025, then one SF-260FH crashed in May 2026 and two more this Month of October 2026. Before that, a PAF SF-260FH crashed in January 2015. In all of these crashes, none of the Pilots survived, and each Aircraft carries two Pilots.
Another PAF SF-260FH did crashed in April 2023 where the two Pilots survived, but probably only because the crash happened just after the Aircraft took off.
Anyway, I hope we can replace these Aircraft with better ones that have Ejection Seats soon, and also get Full Mission Ground Simulators to test and educate better the aspiring Pilots in a non-Lethal Environment first before they fly the real ones.
Full Mission Ground Simulators are those that can perform full Missions while on the Ground. They may not always have “Full Motion” Capability since that will add complexity and therefore costs also, but the important Thing is that the Crew can perform entire full Missions on them safely.
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October 26, 2026: Latest SF-260 Basic Trainer Aircraft Contract for the Philippine Air Force was signed in 2008, Delivery completed in 2011
The Contract for the latest Batch of SF-260 Basic Trainer Aircraft for the Philippine Air Force (PAF) was signed in 2008, the Deal was for 18 Aircraft worth $13.8 million, or around $767k each. The full Delivery of all Aircraft was made in 2011.
I assume that these are still the ones that are flying, so that makes these Aircraft at least 15 Years old now. There are conflicting reports on what the Version of the Aircraft was bought, some reports said it was the “SF-260F” while others said it was the “SF-260FH”.
I couldn’t find any sort of official Reference for the “SF-260FH” Designation, but the “SF-260F” Designation seems to be legit, it is supposed to mean that the Aircraft is using a Fuel-injected Engine.
Ironically, it seems that it was under Gibo Teodoro when these Aircraft were bought as he was also the Defense Secretary back then in 2008. Now even though I don’t always agree with Gibo, I don’t want to necessarily put the blame on him on this one.
The Decision to buy the SF-260 was recommended by the PAF, but I am not sure if it is the only one they wanted to buy. The Decision also likely was affected by the Budget Constraints at that time, remember that during the Administration of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA), there was a lot of Fiscal Belt Tightening, including that for our Military.
Hence these Aircraft were probably bought as a compromise to at least have brand new Aircraft that we could afford back then. Now almost two Decades later after that buy, I think it is time to get better Aircraft, we should be able to afford better ones now.
Note that these Aircraft were reportedly assembled here in the Philippines also as per the Contract, so that was probably another Factor why it was chosen. Hopefully we can get the same Deal on our next buy of Basic Trainer Aircraft.
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