At least eight dead and dozens of injuries left by the accident of a military plane in southwestern Colombia, which crashed with 125 occupants shortly after taking off this Monday.
Images captured the remains of the plane wrapped in flames and smoke, in the middle of the vegetation. Farmers in the area said they heard a “noise”.
“I felt an explosion in the air and, when I looked, the plane was coming close to the house on my plot”said farmer Noé Mota.
The Hercules aircraft, made in the United States, crashed to the ground at 10:00 a.m. local time (15HGMT) in Puerto Leguizamonear the border with Peru and Ecuador, for reasons that are still unknown.
In that area rebel groups operate and there are a high number of hectares with drug crops. Rescue teams are deployed in the area.
The governorate of Putumayo, department where the accident occurred, There were 8 dead and 83 injured.
“The airport (Puerto Leguízamo) is small and there are great difficulties” for the evacuation of the victims, said Jhon Gabriel Molina, governor of Putumayo, in a video shared on Facebook.
For his part, the president of Colombia, the leftist Gustavo Petro, also shared images that show how the aircraft tries to gain altitude before collapsing.
Petro said in X that it was a “horrible accident” and referred to the need to modernize the military fleet, without specifically saying whether this is related to the causes of the accident.
Finally, the armies of Colombia and Ecuador fight the powerful cartels that operate in the border area, where strong military activity and bombings have been reported in recent weeks.
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