Manila, March 4 : The Philippine Air Force (PAF) said a search is on for an FA-50 fighter jet that went missing shortly after midnight on Tuesday while on a tactical night operation.

"The aircraft lost communication with the rest of the flight involved in the mission minute before reaching the target area," the PAF said in a statement.

The other aircraft repeatedly attempted to re-establish contact with the missing jet until returned to Mactan in Cebu province in the central Philippines.

"The PAF is conducting extensive and thorough search operations, utilising all available resources, to locate the missing jet fighter aircraft," read the statement.

The PAF said its primary concern is the safe return of the jet's aircrews. "We are hopeful of locating them and the aircraft soon," the PAF said, Xinhua news agency reported.

Air Force spokesperson Colonel Consuelo Castillo informed reporters that this was the "first major incident" involving its squadron of FA-50S, which had previously participated in exercises over the contested South China Sea.

The Philippines acquired a dozen of these fighter jets from South Korea over the past decade.

Castillo said that the jet was flying "over land" on its way to a designated target area when it went missing during a "tactical night operation in support of our ground troops."

She refrained from disclosing further details about the mission's specifics or its location, except to say that the fighter took off from Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base, which shares a runway with the airport in Cebu, the country's second-largest city.

"We remain hopeful that we will recover both the aircraft and the crew," she said. "We are optimistic that they are safe."

In an official statement, the Air Force stated it was "conducting extensive and thorough search operations, utilising all available resources, to locate the missing jet fighter aircraft."

The FA-50s have been involved in joint air patrols with the United States over the disputed South China Sea, where tensions have escalated between China and the Philippines over territorial claims on reefs and waters.

/IANS