The search for four people, including two Australians, missing after a light plane crash on an active volcano in the Philippines has been further hampered by the fatal shooting of two soldiers involved in the operation, local authorities have said.
Adelaide men Simon Chipperfield and Karthi Santhanam were on board the Cessna 340 aircraft when it went missing on Saturday morning after taking off for Manila from Bicol International Airport in the central province of Albay.
It is not known if there are any survivors, but grave fears are held for all four who were on board, including the pilot and crew member.
Manila-based geothermal company Energy Development Corporation (EDC) — which employed Mr Chipperfield and Mr Santhanam as technical consultants — has confirmed that aerial photos of wreckage on Mayon volcano show the company's plane.
Search teams are now closing in on the crash site, local authorities have said.
The nation's official government news agency has said that two Philippine Army soldiers, Private John Paul C. Adalim and Private Mark June D. Esico, were shot dead while gathering supplies for the search operation.
It has described the shooting as a suspected terrorist attack, and said the soldiers were ambushed at a local market.
"It was learned that while the two soldiers were in the market, five armed men ambushed them and three of them indiscriminately shot the victims," Captain Frank Roldan said in a statement on the Philippine News Agency website.
It said the attack is believed to have been carried out by Communist rebels, and a senior military officer expressed the Army's "condolences to the families left behind".
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said the plane wreckage was on the western side of the volcano, about 1,000 metres to 1,200 metres above sea level.
Philippine rescue teams have begun climbing the volcano in a "very risky operation" to reach the plane wreckage.
The local mayor, Caloy Baldo, said rescue teams were barely a kilometre away from the crash site and were "now assessing how to traverse", according to the Philippine Information Agency.
