By Juan Forero
A large military transport plane carrying dozens of Colombian troops crashed Monday in a forested part of the country's southern jungles, its fuselage engulfed in flames after hitting the ground, officials said.
The aircraft, a Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130, was lifting off from Puerto Leguízamo, a town on the Putumayo River across from Peru, when it went down, said Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez.
"Military units are at the site," Sanchez said. "It had not been determined with precision the number of victims nor the cause of the crash."
The turboprop plane was carrying 114 passengers and 11 crew members, said Gen. Carlos Silva, commander of Colombia's air force. He said that 48 were rescued and were receiving treatment. It remained unclear how many had died, though officials said dozens were missing.
President Gustavo Petro said on X that the accident "should never have happened" and blamed "bureaucratic obstacles" that have prevented upgrades. He said that "young lives are at stake" while asserting that "the military has been losing capacity for 15 years."
"If the civil or military administrative officials are not up to this challenge, they must be removed," the president wrote.
Silva said the plane had taken off at 9:50 a.m. and made it about 2 kilometers -- or about 2,200 yards -- when it crashed. "At this moment, we don't know details except that as soon as it took off it had a problem and plunged to the ground," he said in a video posted on X.
The plane was traveling from the town of 28,000 people to another town, Puerto Asis, in the same province, just 125 miles away. Putumayo province, with its large plantations of drug crops and the presence of heavily armed cocaine-trafficking militias, has long had a heavy presence of army counterinsurgency soldiers and navy marines.
Social media videos posted by Colombian press outlets showed a plume of black smoke rising from beyond the trees when the plane crashed.
Someone is heard in one video saying, "Oh, it fell," as the plane appears to lose altitude -- but just before plummeting into the trees. In another video, flames consume the wreck and surrounding trees.
The mayor of Puerto Leguízamo, Luis Bustos, said his government has tried to get authorities to improve the airport in the past.
"The Leguízamo airport has some particular conditions -- it has many deficiencies," he told Caracol Television. "We believe the runway is very short."
Silva said two aircraft with the capacity to carry about 75 wounded people total -- one of them a C-130 -- were en route to help medical personnel in Puerto Leguízamo.
Bustos the mayor said that the small hospital in the town, which lacks equipment for complex procedures, had been swamped with the injured passengers and was unable to provide them with the necessary medical treatment.
"We are attending in the spaces, in the hallways, wherever we can, because we don't have capacity," he told.
Write to Juan Forero at juan.forero@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 23, 2026 16:11 ET (20:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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