The Air Force Hercules 1016 sits on the tarmac of Catam air base in Bogota on March 20, 2026. A Colombian military plane carrying 125 troops and crew crashed on take off on March 23, 2026, with as many as 80 people aboard feared dead. The Hercules aircraft went down shortly after departure from Puerto Leguizamo, near the southern border with Ecuador, strewing burning wreckage on the jungle floor.
| Photo Credit: AFP
A military transport plane with 125 people on board crashed shortly after taking off Monday (March 23, 2026) in southwestern Colombia, causing an undetermined number of casualties, officials in the South American country said. At least 48 people were rescued alive.
Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez said on X that the plane was carrying troops when the “tragic accident” occurred in Puerto Leguizamo, a remote municipality in the Amazonian province of Putumayo, which borders Peru and Ecuador.
Images shared online by Colombian media outlets showed a black cloud of smoke rising from a field where the plane crashed, and a truck with soldiers rushing to the site.
Carlos Fernando Silva, the commander of Colombia’s Air Force, later issued a video saying that 125 people were on board the Hercules C-130 plane, including 114 passengers and 11 crew members. Mr. Silva said that at least 48 people were rescued alive as rescue efforts continued at the crash site.
Media outlets shared videos of soldiers being rushed from the site on motorcycles driven by local residents.
“At this moment we do not know details” of the crash Silva said. “Except that the plane had a problem and went down about two kilometers from the airport.” The air force commander added that two planes, with 74 beds, had been sent to the area to fly the injured back to hospitals in Bogota and elsewhere.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on X that he hoped there would be “no deadly casualties in this accident that should have not occurred.” Petro seized on the accident to promote what he called his long-time campaign to modernize planes and other equipment used by his country’s military, saying those efforts have been blocked by “bureaucratic difficulties” and suggesting that some officials should be held accountable. “If civilian or military administrative officials are not up to the challenge, they must be removed,” Petro said.
Mr. Sánchez wrote that the accident was “profoundly painful for the country,” adding that: “We hope that our prayers can help to relieve some of the pain.”
Published – March 24, 2026 01:28 am IST
