A Colombian military transport plane crashed on takeoff, killing 66 people and leaving four missing, with the cause under investigation after explosive devices detonated.
BOGOTA: A Colombian military transport plane crashed on takeoff on Monday, killing 66 people and leaving four others missing.
The Lockheed Martin-built Hercules C-130 was carrying 128 people, including 11 Air Force members, 115 army personnel and two national police officers, according to armed forces head Hugo Alejandro Lopez.
The death toll is nearly double the initial figure given by authorities as search and recovery efforts continue at the remote crash site.
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Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said the accident occurred as the plane was taking off from Puerto Leguizamo, on the border with Peru.
Firefighter Eduardo San Juan Callejas told Caracol the plane suffered an impact near the end of the runway, with a wing clipping a tree as it plummeted.
The crash caused the plane to catch fire and detonate explosive devices that were on board, he added.
Residents of the remote area were the first to pull out survivors, with videos showing wounded soldiers being transported on the back of motorcycles.
Military vehicles later arrived, though authorities said the difficult-to-reach site impeded rescue efforts.
Lopez said 57 survivors had been hospitalized, with 30 in non-serious condition at a military clinic.
President Gustavo Petro criticised bureaucratic obstacles for delaying his plans to modernize the military.
“I will grant no further delays; it is the lives of our young people that are at stake,” he said in a post on X.
“If civilian or military administrative officials are not up to this challenge, they must be removed.”
Several candidates in Colombia’s upcoming May 31 presidential election offered condolences and called for an investigation.
A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said the company was committed to helping Colombia as it investigates the incident.
Hercules C-130 planes were first launched in the 1950s and Colombia acquired its first models in the late 1960s.
The country has more recently modernized some older C-130s with newer models sent from the US.
Hercules C-130s are frequently used in Colombia to transport troops as part of military operations amid a six-decade-long internal conflict.
The tail number of the crashed plane matches that of the first of three planes delivered by the US to Colombia in recent years.
At the end of February, another Hercules C-130 belonging to the Bolivian Air Force crashed in the city of El Alto.
More than 20 people died in that incident and another 30 were injured.
