A military transport plane with 125 people on board crashed in southwestern Colombia shortly after takeoff on Monday, with an unknown number of casualties, officials in the South American country said. According to AP, at least 48 people were rescued alive, UNN reports.
Details
Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X that the plane was carrying military personnel when the "tragic accident" occurred in Puerto Leguízamo, a remote municipality in the Amazonian province of Putumayo, bordering Peru and Ecuador.
Images posted online by Colombian media showed a black cloud of smoke rising from the field where the plane crashed, and a truck with soldiers rushing to the crash site.
Colombian Air Force Commander Carlos Fernando Silva later released a video stating that there were 125 people on board the Hercules C-130 aircraft, including 114 passengers and 11 crew members. Silva said that at least 48 people were rescued alive as rescue operations continued at the crash site.
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Media outlets circulated videos showing soldiers being evacuated from the scene on motorcycles driven by locals.
"At the moment, we do not know the details of the crash," Silva said. "Except that the plane had a problem and crashed about two kilometers from the airport." The Air Force commander added that two planes with 74 beds had been sent to the crash area to transport the injured to hospitals in Bogota and other locations.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on social media that he hoped that "there will be no fatalities in this accident that should not have happened."
Petro used the accident to promote what he called his long-standing campaign to modernize aircraft and other equipment used by his country's armed forces, saying that these efforts had been blocked by "bureaucratic difficulties" and suggesting that some officials should be held accountable. "If civilian or military administrative officials do not cope with this task, they must be dismissed," Petro said.
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Sanchez wrote that the accident "caused deep pain to the country," adding: "We hope that our prayers will help alleviate at least some of this pain."