At least 66 killed after Colombian military plane crashes in southern Amazon

A Colombian military transport plane with 121 people on board, mostly soldiers, crashed shortly after takeoff in the country’s south, killing at least 66 people, authorities said.The defence minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the accident happened as the Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130 plane was taking off from Puerto Leguízamo, deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region, on the border with Peru, as it transported troops from the armed forces.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.The air force said in a statement that at least 77 people were rescued from the crash site with injuries. A spokesman from the defence ministry said that officials are still investigating the final number of fatalities.Media outlets shared videos of soldiers being rushed from the site on motorcycles driven by local residents, while another ...

• 24 Mar 2026