A passenger plane has gone down in northern Colombia, leaving no survivors among the 15 people on board, Satena, the country’s state-owned airline, confirmed.
The airline said the Beechcraft 1900 plane “suffered a fatal accident” while in flight, and authorities have since located the wreckage in a rugged, mountainous area.
The flight carried 13 passengers and two crew members. The official passenger list included lawmaker Diogenes Quintero Amaya and Carlos Salcedo, a candidate in the upcoming congressional elections.
Satena reported that communication with the aircraft was lost about 11 minutes before it was scheduled to land in Ocaña, a city near the border with Venezuela. The plane had taken off from Cúcuta, roughly 100 kilometres northeast of Ocaña, on Wednesday.
Search teams were immediately deployed to the mountainous region where the plane disappeared. A hotline was set up to help families of the passengers and crew. Colombia’s armed forces joined the rescue operation, despite some areas being under the control of the ELN guerrilla group.
