TL:DR – Colombia Plane Crash: Tragic Incident in Mountains Claims All Lives Aboard
- A Satena Airlines plane carrying 15 people crashed in Colombia, near the Venezuelan border, killing all on board.
- The Beechcraft 1900D disappeared from radar shortly after takeoff from Cucuta, impacting a mountainside.
- Notable victims included human rights lawyer Diógenes Quintero and political candidate Carlos Salcedo.
- The crash, among the deadliest in Colombia’s aviation history, prompted an investigation into the cause.
- Emergency beacons failed to activate, complicating recovery efforts.
Plane crashes into mountains in Colombia killing all on board | News World
A plane carrying 15 people has crashed in Colombia near the Venezuelan border in a remote region controlled by an armed group, killing all on board.
The Satena Airlines Flight HK4709 had just taken off from the city of Cucuta near the country’s border with Venezuela when it suddenly disappeared from radar.
The Beechcraft 1900D plane carrying 13 passengers and two crew had ‘suffered a fatal accident,’ the airline confirmed. The aircraft’s emergency beacon was not activated, it added.
It crashed into a mountainside around 12 minutes into the 23-minute flight to Ocana after losing control with air traffic controllers.
Colombia’s civil aviation authority said there were no survivors (Picture: Notiplaya/Reuters)
The plane was missing for more than three hours before it was located in the Playa de Belen municipality in an area controlled by the ELN guerrilla group.
Colombia’s army was called in to support search-and-rescue efforts.
Who was on board?
Diógenes Quintero, a human rights lawyer and a member of the Colombian House of Representatives, was killed in the crash along with his team member (Picture: Camara.gov.co)
There were no survivors in the crash, Colombia’s civil aviation authority confirmed.
Passengers included Diógenes Quintero, 36, a member of the House of Representatives, Natalia Acosta Salcedo, a member of his team, and Carlos Salcedo Salaza, a candidate in the upcoming elections.
A member of Carlos Salcedo Salaza’s election campaign team broke down after news of his death emerged (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
Quintero was a prominent human rights lawyer, who had supported victims of the country’s protracted armed conflict between guerrillas, drug gangs and the army, before being elected in 2022.
His team posted a message on Instagram shortly after authorities confirmed there were no survivors.
People stand near the wreckage of a plane crash in Playa de Belen, North Santander, after it went missing from radar before crashing (Picture: Notiplaya/Reuters)
The post in Spanish said the ‘soul of the team is gone’ after the deaths of Quintero and Salcedo, adding that ‘today the road stopped for two people who were our family.’
It added: ‘They left together, working for what they believed in, traveling through that land they loved so much.’
Seven bodies have been recovered from the wreckage after authorities were alerted to the crash site by local residents who spotted plane debris.
The crash site is on a steep mountainside in the North Santander region controlled by an armed group (Picture: Deiby Martinez/Reuters)
Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, said on social media: ‘I am deeply saddened by these deaths.
‘My heartfelt condolences to their families. May they rest in peace.’
The crash is among Colombia’s deadliest aviation incidents. It comes after a Cessna 402C crashed near Urrao on January 8, killing ten people on board.
What caused the crash?
A plane tracker shows the route of the flight from Cucuta towards Ocana before it suddenly disappeared from radar (Picture: Flightradar24)
While the exact cause of the crash is not yet known, an investigation into the disaster was launched to determine why the plane disappeared and crashed in a dense jungle in the eastern Andes mountain region.
The aircraft left the Camilo Daza International Airport at 11.42am local time (4.42pm UTC).
It then lost contact with the tower at around 11.54am. The residents of rural Curasica village reported seeing the plane shortly after 4pm.
The airline said that the plane’s emergency beacon was not activated.
The plane was a Beechcraft 1900D turboprop model capable of carrying 19 passengers, often used as a regional cargo and corporate plane, and it can operate on grass and rough runways.
Colombia’s minister of transport, Mafe Rojas, said on X: ‘We are gathering information regarding the loss of communication with aircraft HK4709, which was flying the Cúcuta-Ocaña route with 13 passengers and 2 crew members.’