Death toll from Colombian military plane crash rises to 69 as search ends

Sixty-nine members of the Colombian security forces have been killed after a military plane crashed in the south of the country on Monday. The military announced on Wednesday that it had finished search and rescue operations. Fifty-seven people were also injured when the Hercules C-130 plane came down shortly after take-off near Colombia's border with Peru. Many were pulled out of the burning wreckage and taken to hospital by locals, who put them on the backs of their motorbikes. An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the accident. A total of 126 people were on board the transport plane, the Colombian armed forces said on Wednesday, updating the previous figure of 128. The plane had been travelling from the town of Puerto Leguízamo to Puerto Asís. In a series of posts on social media, Colombian President Gustavo Petro appeared to blame antiquated military hardware for the accident. Talking about the victims, but without mentioning the Hercules plane directly, he wrote: "This piece of scrap metal was bought in 2020 and came down, let's ask why." In an earlier post, he blamed "bureaucratic problems" for holding up his plans to modernise the armed forces' equipment and their aircraft. "I will allow no further delays, the lives of our young people are at stake," he wrote. Mobile phone footage shared on social media showed the plane losing height shortly after take-off, followed by a large plume of smoke rising from the crash site and the sound of explosions. Colombia's defence minister said the sound came from ammunition on board blowing up in the flames. He added that there was no indication that the plane had come under attack from any of the armed groups which are active in the Putumayo region. A local farmer told AFP news agency that he had heard a loud bang before the Hercules crashed into trees near his home. "I felt an explosion in the air and, when I looked up, the plane was flying close to the house on my plot," Noé Mota said. According to the latest update from the armed forces, 113 members of the army, two police officers and 11 crew members were on board. The crash is the second time a Hercules C-130 has been involved in a deadly accident in as many months. On 27 February, a Hercules C-130 belonging to the Bolivian army, carrying a shipment of banknotes, overshot the runway on its approach to the airport in El Alto, in Bolivia, and crashed into traffic on a nearby highway. Twenty-four people were killed in that incident.