A army transport airplane with 128 folks on board, principally troopers, crashed shortly after taking off Monday in Puerto Leguizamo, Colombia, killing at the least 66 folks and leaving dozens injured, the top of Colombia’s armed forces stated.
Normal Hugo Alejandro López Barreto stated that 4 army personnel had been nonetheless lacking.
“Sadly, as a consequence of this tragic accident, 66 of our army components died,” he stated.
“For the time being, we now have no data, or indications, that it was an assault by an unlawful armed group,” Barreto added.
In a video posted on social media, Deputy Mayor Carlos Claros stated that the our bodies of the victims had been taken to the small city’s morgue, and that the one two clinics on the town handled the injured earlier than they had been flown to bigger cities. Puerto Leguizamo is situated in Putumayo, an Amazonian province that borders Ecuador and Peru.
“I need to thank the folks of Puerto Leguizamo who got here out to assist the victims of this accident,” Claros advised Colombian tv station RCN.
Protection Minister Pedro Sánchez stated on X that the airplane that crashed Monday was transporting troops to a different metropolis in Putumayo.
Photographs shared on-line by Colombian media shops confirmed a black cloud of smoke rising from a area the place the airplane crashed and a truck with troopers dashing to the positioning.
The airplane had 128 folks on board, together with 115 had been from the Military, 11 crew members and a pair of from the Nationwide Police. Baretto stated 57 folks had been evacuated.
Media shops shared movies of troopers being rushed from the positioning on bikes pushed by native residents, whereas one other group of residents tried to place out the fireplace that the airplane crash had created in a area surrounded by dense foliage.
Carlos Fernando Silva, the commander of Colombia’s air power, stated particulars of the crash weren’t but identified, “besides that the airplane had an issue and went down about two kilometers from the airport.”
The air power commander added that two planes, with 74 beds, had been despatched to the realm to fly the injured again to hospitals within the capital, Bogota, and elsewhere.
Petro seized on the accident to advertise what he referred to as his longtime marketing campaign to modernize planes and different tools utilized by his nation’s army, saying these efforts have been blocked by “bureaucratic difficulties” and suggesting that some officers needs to be held accountable.
“If civilian or army administrative officers are lower than the problem, they have to be eliminated,” Petro stated.
Critics of the president identified that army plane have been given much less flight hours beneath the Petro administration on account of price range cuts, which results in much less skilled crews.
Erich Saumeth, a Colombian aviation knowledgeable and army analyst, stated that the Hercules C-130 that crashed Monday had been donated by the USA to Colombia in 2020. Three years later, it went via an in depth revision often known as an overhaul, by which its engines had been inspected and key parts had been changed.
“I don’t suppose this airplane crashed due to a scarcity of fine components,” Saumeth stated. He stated that investigations should decide why the engines of the Hercules, which has 4 propellers, failed so rapidly after take off.
In a message on X Monday, Protection Minister Sánchez stated that to date there have been no indicators indicating that the airplane was attacked by insurgent teams that function close to Puerto Leguizamo.
Sánchez wrote that the accident was “profoundly painful for the nation,” including that: “We hope that our prayers might help to alleviate a few of the ache.”
