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Reuters

A Colombian military plane crashed in a take-off disaster on Monday, killing 66 people as rescuers shuttled dozens of survivors to nearby hospitals and searched for four who were still missing, according to a top official.
The Lockheed Martin-built Hercules C-130 transport plane was carrying 128 people, including 11 Air Force members, 115 army personnel and two national police officers, according to ‌Hugo Alejandro Lopez, head of the nation’s armed forces.
The death toll was nearly double that of the previous figure given by authorities, who continued search and recovery efforts at the site of the deadly crash.
The accident occurred as the plane was taking off from Puerto Leguizamo, on the border with Peru, Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X.

The plane was believed to have suffered an impact near the end of the runway as it was taking off, firefighter Eduardo San Juan Callejas told Caracol, with a wing of the plane later clipping a tree as ⁠it was plummeting.
The crash caused the plane to catch fire and detonate some sort of explosive devices on board, he added.
Residents of the remote area ‌were the first to pull out survivors, with videos showing men speeding down a dirt road with wounded soldiers on the back of their motorcycles.
Military vehicles later arrived, though authorities said the crash site was difficult to reach, impeding rescue efforts.
Lopez ‌said that 57 of the survivors had been hospitalised, with 30 of them in non-serious condition at a military clinic.
President Gustavo Petro, in the ⁠twilight of his administration, on Monday criticised bureaucratic obstacles for delaying his plans to modernise the military.

“I will grant no further delays; it is the lives of our young people that are at ‌stake,” he said in a post on X. “If civilian or military administrative officials are not up to this challenge, they must be removed.”
Several candidates in Colombia’s May 31 presidential election offered condolences and ‌called for ‌an investigation.
A spokesperson for Lockheed Martin said the company was committed to helping Colombia as it investigates the incident.
Hercules C-130 planes were first launched in ‌the 1950s and Colombia acquired its first models in the late 1960s. It has more recently modernised some older C-130s with newer models sent from the US ⁠under a provision that allows for the transfer of used or surplus military equipment.
Hercules C-130s have been frequently used in Colombia to transport troops as part of ⁠the military’s operations amid a six-decade-long internal conflict that has claimed more than 450,000 lives.
The tail number of the plane that crashed on Monday matches that of the first of three planes delivered by the US to Colombia in recent years.
At the end of February, another ‌Hercules C-130 belonging to the Bolivian Air Force ‌crashed in the populous city of El Alto, barely missing a residential block. More than 20 people died in that incident and another 30 were injured, and banknotes from the plane’s cargo scattered around the crash site, prompting clashes between residents and security forces.


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At least 66 dead as Colombia military plane crashes after take-off

Members of the military at the crash site. Photo: La Voz de Amazonia via Reuters

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Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro in a helicopter on Tuesday. Photo: Colombia’s National Unit for Risk and Disaster Management UNGRD via AFP

 Senator Aida Quilcue after her rescue. Photo: Colombian Defence Ministry via AFP

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Wreckage of the crashed aircraft in northeastern Colombia. Photo: RTVC Noticias via Xinhua

Funeral hearses carrying the bodies. Photo: AFP

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Bolivian military personnel guard the wreckage of a military cargo plane that crashed in El Alto, Bolivia, on Friday. Photo: EPA

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Death toll rises from a Hercules C-130 transport plane crash deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region


Death toll rises from a Hercules C-130 transport plane crash deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region.


At least 66 dead as Colombia military plane crashes after take-off

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Death toll rises from a Hercules C-130 transport plane crash deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region

Death toll rises from a Hercules C-130 transport plane crash deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region