At least 66 dead in Colombian military plane crash, officials say -VIDEO

Air force commander Carlos Fernando Silva Rueda said 114 army personnel were on board, along with 11 crew members, News.Az reports, citing the BBC.

The aircraft, a US-made C-130 Hercules used for transporting troops, came down near the town of Puerto Leguízamo in Putumayo province.

Emergency workers sent to the area were seen searching through the wreckage for survivors. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Colombian Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez said the Lockheed Martin-built Hercules C-130 transport plane had suffered “a tragic accident” while taking off from Puerto Leguízamo, transporting troops of the country’s security forces.

He described the incident near the border with Peru as “deeply sad for the country”.

Ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire on the aircraft, Sánchez later said.

A military source told AFP that 58 soldiers had died, along with six air force personnel and two police officers.

Two military sources also told Reuters that 66 people had died.

The incident is one of the deadliest accidents in recent history for Colombia’s air force.

Images shared by local media show a plume of smoke rising from the site and trucks carrying soldiers heading to the area.

Footage on local news sites also appears to show locals transporting what appear to be injured soldiers from the crash site to hospitals on the back of small motorbikes.

President Gustavo Petro wrote on X that “this horrendous accident … should not have happened”.

In a lengthy post, he also blamed “bureaucratic problems” for delaying his plans to modernise the armed forces’ equipment and aircraft.

“I will allow no further delays, the lives of our young people are at stake,” he wrote, without clarifying what may have caused the accident.

Last month, a Bolivian Air Force C-130 Hercules transporting banknotes crashed in the west of the country, killing at least 20 people.