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Philippine security forces searched among coconut trees on a remote southern island Monday for the flight data boxes of an aircraft that crashed and killed 52 people in one of the country's worst military air disasters, AFP reported. 

The C-130 Hercules transport plane was carrying 96 people, most of them recent army graduates, when it overshot the runway on Sunday while trying to land on Jolo island in Sulu province -- a haven for Islamist militants. The plane "skidded" and burst into flames in a village, killing 52 people including 49 military personnel and three civilians, said military spokesman Major General Edgard Arevalo.

Another 51 were injured, most of them soldiers. It was not clear if the pilots were among the survivors. The three civilians killed were not on the flight and had been working in a quarry, village leader Tanda Hailid told AFP.

Most of the passengers recently graduated from basic military training and were being deployed to the restive island as part of a counter-insurgency effort in the Muslim-majority region.