BOGOTA, Colombia — A military transport plane with 125 people on board, most of them soldiers, crashed shortly after taking off Monday in southwestern Colombia, injuring at least 77 people, officials in the South American country said.
Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said on X that the “tragic accident” occurred in Puerto Leguizamo, a remote municipality in the Amazonian province of Putumayo, which borders Peru and Ecuador.
Images shared online by Colombian media outlets showed a black cloud of smoke rising from a field where the plane crashed and a truck with soldiers rushing to the site.
Carlos Fernando Silva, the commander of Colombia’s air force, later issued a video saying that 125 people were on board the Hercules C-130 plane, including 114 passengers and 11 crew members.
In a separate statement, the air force said at least 77 people were rescued from the crash site with injuries, as rescue efforts were continuing. It said the plane had been transporting 110 soldiers to another city in Putumayo province.
Media outlets shared videos of soldiers being rushed from the site on motorcycles driven by local residents.
“At this moment we do not know details” of the crash, Silva said. “Except that the plane had a problem and went down about two kilometers from the airport.” The air force commander added that two planes, with 74 beds, had been sent to the area to fly the injured back to hospitals in the capital, Bogota, and elsewhere.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on X that he hoped there would be “no deadly casualties in this accident that should have not occurred.”
Petro seized on the accident to promote what he called his longtime campaign to modernize planes and other equipment used by his country’s military, saying those efforts have been blocked by “bureaucratic difficulties” and suggesting that some officials should be held accountable. “If civilian or military administrative officials are not up to the challenge, they must be removed,” Petro said.
Sánchez wrote that the accident was “profoundly painful for the country,” adding that: “We hope that our prayers can help to relieve some of the pain.”
Rueda writes for the Associated Press.
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