A plane carrying 15 people has crashed in Colombia near the Venezuelan border, 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 1900 plane carrying 13 passengers and two crew had ‘suffered a fatal accident,’ the airline said. 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.
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?
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, and Carlos Salcedo Salaza, a candidate in the upcoming elections.
Seven bodies have been recovered from the wreckage after authorities were alerted to the crash site by local residents who spotted debris from the plane.
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.
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