Colombia’s Ministry of Defense announced on Monday (March 23) that a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules transport aircraft crashed during take-off in the southern part of the country. According to local media reports, the plane was carrying 110 soldiers.
Defense Minister of Colombia, Pedro Sanchez, stated that at the time of the accident, the aircraft was taking off from Puerto Leguizamo, located in the Amazon region of southern Colombia near the Peruvian border, to carry out a troop transport mission. “The exact number of casualties and the cause of the crash have not been determined yet,” he added.
Two military sources told Reuters that 57 people have been rescued and evacuated from the wreckage. A Colombian military official informed AFP that the plane was believed to have two full platoons on board, around 80 soldiers, while local media reports suggest the number could be higher, exceeding 100 people.
“BluRadio” quoted authorities as saying that there were a total of 110 soldiers on board, and the crash site is only 3 kilometers (2 miles) away from the city center. Images shared by the radio station show the wreckage still burning with thick smoke rising from it.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted on “Truth Social” saying that the plane encountered a “tragic accident” while taking off from Puerto Leguizamo, carrying members of the country’s security forces.
In his extensive post, he attributed the delay in modernizing the armed forces’ equipment and aircraft to “bureaucratic issues”.
Colombia’s C-130 fleet has a long history, with the first models dating back to the 1960s. Despite recent efforts to replace older models with newer ones through the United States’ Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program, President Petro seems frustrated with the slow overall modernization progress, citing inefficiencies in the bureaucracy that threaten soldiers’ lives.
“I will not tolerate any further delays, as this concerns the lives of our young people,” he wrote. “If civilian or military executive officials cannot address this challenge, they must be dismissed.”
At the end of February this year, another C-130 Hercules transport plane belonging to the Bolivian Air Force crashed in the densely populated city of El Alto, resulting in over twenty deaths and more than thirty injuries.