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At least eight people were killed and more than 80 others injured on Monday when a Colombian military transport plane crashed shortly after takeoff in the country’s southern Amazon region.
The Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules was carrying approximately 125 people, the majority of whom were soldiers, when it went down near Puerto Leguízamo, a remote municipality close to the border with Ecuador and Peru.
Regional Governor Jhon Gabriel Molina confirmed the death toll, noting that while dozens have been rescued, several passengers remain in critical condition.
Footage from the scene showed thick plumes of black smoke and a burning fuselage in a forest clearing just a few kilometres from the airport.
President Gustavo Petro described the incident as a “horrific accident” and used the tragedy to call for an urgent modernisation of the military’s ageing fleet, which he claimed has been stalled by bureaucratic obstacles.
While rescue teams and military units have secured the site, the status of several occupants remains unaccounted for as recovery efforts continue in the dense terrain.
Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez stated that there were no immediate signs that the aircraft had been targeted by rebel groups active in the region.
Aviation investigators have been deployed to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred during a troop transport mission to Puerto Asís.
This disaster marks a profoundly painful moment for the Colombian armed forces and follows a similar Hercules crash in neighbouring Bolivia just weeks prior, heightening regional concerns over the maintenance of older tactical transport models.
