• Accidents
• Colombia

The plane crashed shortly after taking off.

Bogota, Mar 23 (EFE).-

A Hercules C-130 operated by the Colombian Air Force crashed shortly after takeoff Monday with 128 people on board, killing at least 66 service members, injuring 57 and leaving four missing, authorities said.

The aircraft went down after departing from Puerto Leguízamo, in the southern department of Putumayo, in Colombia’s Amazon region.

“There were 128 people on the aircraft, including 11 Colombian Air Force crew members, 115 soldiers from the National Army and two members of the National Police,” said Hugo Alejandro López, commander of Colombia’s armed forces, noting that the plane was carrying three more people than initially reported.

“Unfortunately, as a result of this tragic accident, 66 of our service members died and are in the process of being identified,” López said.

According to his breakdown, 58 of the dead were Army personnel, six were Air Force crew members and two were police officers. “At this time, four of our service members remain unaccounted for,” he added.

López said 57 service members were injured and evacuated. Eight were transferred to Florencia, the capital of the neighboring department of Caquetá, and 49 were flown to Bogotá. Of those taken to Bogotá, 19 were admitted to the Military Hospital, while 30 with less serious injuries were treated at the Military Health Battalion, he said.

Authorities reported confusion throughout the day over casualty figures after the aircraft caught fire upon crashing in a remote jungle area outside Puerto Leguízamo, near Colombia’s borders with Ecuador and Peru.

Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez Suárez said that “as a result of the fire on the aircraft, some of the ammunition being transported by the troops detonated,” worsening conditions at the crash site.

“Based on the information available so far, there are no indications of an attack by illegal armed groups,” Sánchez said, despite the presence in the area of dissident factions of the former FARC, including the so-called Border Commands and the Carolina Ramírez Front, which control illicit crops in Putumayo.

The crash occurred at 9:50 a.m. local time (1450 GMT) when aircraft FAC 1016, which had just taken off from Puerto Leguízamo bound for Puerto Asís, also in Putumayo, went down for reasons that remain under investigation.

“The investigation will be rigorous, transparent and carried out as quickly as possible. The country will know the truth,” said Sánchez, a retired Air Force general.

According to defense news outlet SA Defensa, the aircraft had been in service for 43 years. It entered service with the United States Air Force in 1983 and was transferred to the Colombian Air Force in 2020.

Rescue operations involved the Colombian Navy, which has a base in Puerto Leguízamo, Civil Defense responders and dozens of local residents who rushed to the scene after witnessing the crash. Many injured were transported by motorcycle to the María Angelines Hospital.

Initial medical care was hampered by the limited health infrastructure in Puerto Leguízamo, a municipality without road connections to the rest of the country and accessible only by air or by an eight-hour river journey.

As a result, the Air Force dispatched from Bogotá an air ambulance and another C-130 “with capacity for 50 stretchers to carry out a mass evacuation of the wounded,” as well as a CASA 295 with 24 stretchers, said Air Force commander Carlos Fernando Silva.

A medicalized UH-60 helicopter was also deployed to transport wounded personnel to closer cities such as Neiva and Florencia, the capitals of Huila and Caquetá, respectively.

The crash has sparked political controversy during the campaign for Colombia’s May 31 presidential election, amid criticism from opposition figures who say cuts to the defense budget have affected maintenance of military aircraft.

“President, if you devoted more time to governing than campaigning for your party and candidate, you would have carried out this and other indispensable government actions in time to guarantee the security of our troops, people and territories,” presidential candidate Claudia López wrote on X.

Her remarks responded to a post by President Gustavo Petro, who said his government had decided years ago to renew the armed forces’ weaponry, but that the effort had been delayed by “bureaucratic difficulties in the military administration.” EFE

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