Following the 66-person Colombian plane crash, four missing soldiers are being looked for.

 

Footage shows smoke and scattered debris from Air Force plane crash in Colombia (Image: BBC)

Four people are missing after a military plane crashed in the south of Colombia. Rescue workers are looking for them. Sixty-six members of the Colombian security forces were killed on Monday, when the Hercules C-130 transport plane came down shortly after take-off near Colombia's border with Peru.

 Locals were first to the scene, pulling out dozens of injured survivors from the burning wreckage and ferrying them to hospitals on the back of their motorbikes.

 An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the accident.

Read More: At least 20 killed after military plane carrying banknotes crashes in Bolivia

A total of 128 people were on board the transport plane, which was headed from the town of Puerto Leguízamo to Puerto Asís.

 Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, appeared to attribute the accident to out-of-date military equipment in a series of social media posts. He wrote, "This piece of scrap metal was bought in 2020 and came down, let's ask why," without mentioning the Hercules plane. He was talking about the victims. In an earlier post, he blamed "bureaucratic problems" for holding up his plans to modernise the armed forces' equipment and their aircraft.

 "I will allow no further delays, the lives of our young people are at stake," he wrote.

 Mobile phone footage shared on social media showed the plane losing height shortly after take-off, followed by a large plume of smoke rising from the crash site and the sound of explosions.

 According to Colombia's defense minister, the sound was caused by the burning ammunition on board. He added that there was no indication that the plane had come under attack from any of the armed groups which are active in the Putumayo region.

 Before the Hercules crashed into trees near his house, a farmer in the area told the AFP news agency that he had heard a loud bang. Noé Mota stated, "When I looked up, the plane was flying close to the house on my plot. I felt an explosion in the air." According to Commander General Hugo Alejandro López, the crash resulted in the deaths of 58 army personnel, six members of the air force, and two police officers. The crash is the second time a Hercules C-130 has been involved in a deadly accident in as many months.

 On 27 February, a Hercules C-130 belonging to the Bolivian army, carrying a shipment of banknotes, overshot the runway on its approach to the airport in El Alto, in Bolivia, and crashed into traffic on a nearby highway.

 Twenty-four people were killed in that incident.

The plane came down close to the airfield in Puerto Leguízamo, in Putumayo province (Image: BBC)

Source: BBC