A military plane of the Colombian Air Force in which more than a hundred soldiers were traveling suffered an accident this Monday a few minutes after taking off in the south of the country. Authorities have confirmed that 34 of the passengers have died in the accident.
“With deep pain I report that a Hercules plane from our FAC suffered a tragic accident while taking off from Puerto Leguízamo (Putumayo), when it was transporting troops from the Public Force,” the country’s Minister of Defense, Pedro Sánchez, explained in a message on social networks.
Authorities have confirmed that 71 injured people have been rescued after the accident.
In videos published on social networks you can see a large column of smoke in the area and remains of the crashed plane scattered, while Sánchez himself has confirmed that military units have moved to the scene to help with the rescue.
This type of Hercules C-130 aircraft is one of the models most used by air forces around the world to transport soldiers and military material, and has capacity for approximately one hundred passengers with weapons and ammunition.
Local media claim that the crashed plane had about 110 people on board, most of them military.
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, has also regretted what happened in a message on social networks and has described it as a “horrible accident that should not have happened.”
