15 passengers were killed in a Colombian plane crash

The Colombian Civil Aviation Authority announced that a plane carrying 15 people, including a deputy, crashed near the border with Venezuela on Wednesday, killing the passengers and crew.

The plane, which was operated by the Colombian state airline Satena, took off from the city of Cúcuta and lost contact with control towers just before it was scheduled to land in nearby Ocaña.

An official at the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement to Agence France-Presse, “There are no survivors” of the crash.

The Colombian state airline (Satena) said earlier that air and military authorities had launched a search for a small commercial plane carrying 15 people, including 13 passengers and two crew, after it lost contact with it while flying in the northeast of the country.

The company said in a statement, “Flight No. (NSE 8849), which took off at approximately 11:42 am and was scheduled to land at approximately 12:05 pm, reported its last contact with air traffic control at 11:54 am on Wednesday morning.”

El Tiempo newspaper reported that a parliamentarian named Diogenes Quintero and a candidate in the congressional elections scheduled for March called Carlos Salcido were among the passengers on the plane.

Contact with the plane was lost in a mountainous area planted with coca leaves, which is the raw material for the cocaine industry, and where unidentified armed groups are active.
Legal forces such as the National Liberation Army and a splinter faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).