Colombia plane crash kills 15 including politician

A small passenger plane has crashed in northern Colombia, killing all 15 people on board, including a congressman.

Rescuers located the crash site and “regrettably confirmed that there were no survivors”, Colombia‘s transportation ministry said.

Two crew members and 13 passengers – including Diogenes Quintero, 36, a member of the House of Representatives for Catatumbo, and Carlos Salcedo, who was running for Congress – died in the incident.

The aircraft, operated by state-owned airline Satena, took off on Wednesday at 11.42am local time from Cucuta bound for Ocana, a mountainous region, on a flight that typically lasts about 40 minutes.

The aircraft’s final contact with air traffic control came minutes after take off, Satena said.

Satena did not say what caused the Beechcraft 1900 twin-engine turboprop ​plane to crash, adding the aircraft’s emergency beacon had not been activated.

The cause of the crash – in the rural area of Norte de Santander near the Venezuelan border – is being investigated.

Mr Quintero was a renowned human rights activist in the troubled border region.

The lawyer was elected in 2022 as one of 16 representatives in the lower chamber to represent the more than nine million victims of Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict.

His party, the U Party, paid tribute to him, describing him as “a leader committed to his region, with a firm vocation for service”.

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Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a post on social media: “I am deeply saddened by these deaths.

“My heartfelt condolences to their families. May they rest in peace.”

Satena said officials in the community of Curasica alerted authorities about where the plane had gone down, and a rescue team was deployed to the site.