A Colombian military plane crashed during takeoff on Monday, killing 66 people as rescuers transported dozens of survivors to nearby hospitals and searched for four who remained missing, officials said.
The Lockheed Martin-built Hercules C-130 transport was carrying 128 people: 11 Air Force members, 115 army personnel and two national police officers, according to Hugo Alejandro Lopez, head of the nation’s armed forces. Authorities said the updated death toll was nearly double an earlier figure as search and recovery continued at the scene.
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 aircraft appeared to have struck near the end of the runway during takeoff, with a wing clipping a tree as it fell. The crash caused a fire and reportedly detonated some explosive devices on board.
Residents of the remote area were the first to pull survivors from the wreckage; videos showed people speeding down a dirt road with wounded soldiers on the backs of motorcycles. Military vehicles later arrived, but officials said the crash site was difficult to reach, hampering rescue efforts.
Lopez said 57 survivors had been hospitalized, with 30 in non-serious condition at a military clinic.
President Gustavo Petro, nearing the end of his term, criticized bureaucratic obstacles that he said had delayed plans to modernize the military. “I will grant no further delays; it is the lives of our young people that are at stake,” he wrote on X, adding that officials not up to the challenge should be removed. Several candidates in Colombia’s May 31 presidential election offered condolences and called for an investigation.
A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said the company was committed to assisting Colombia in the investigation. Hercules C-130s were first flown in the 1950s; Colombia acquired its first in the late 1960s and has more recently modernized older C-130s with newer models transferred from the United States under provisions allowing the transfer of used or surplus equipment. C-130s are frequently used in Colombia to move troops amid a six-decade internal conflict that has claimed more than 450,000 lives.
Officials noted the tail number of the crashed plane matches the first of three aircraft delivered by the U.S. in recent years. In late February, a Bolivian Air Force C-130 crashed in El Alto, killing more than 20 people and injuring about 30, with banknotes from the plane’s cargo scattered at the scene and clashes between residents and security forces.
