The Beechcraft 1900 twin-engined turboprop plane took off before noon from Cucuta, on the border with Venezuela, for a short flight to the town of Ocana, according to the airline, according to Reuters.
Fifteen people died on Wednesday after a small passenger aircraft operated by Colombia’s state-run airline Satena crashed in the country’s northeast, the carrier said.
The Beechcraft 1900 twin-engined turboprop plane took off before noon from Cucuta, on the border with Venezuela, for a short flight to the town of Ocana, according to the airline, according to Reuters.
Satena said air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft 12 minutes into the flight. The carrier did not say what caused the crash and said the plane’s emergency beacon had not been activated.
A passenger list released by the airline showed that those on board included local lawmaker Diogenes Quintero and members of his team, as well as Carlos Salcedo, a candidate for Congress ahead of elections in March.
Images released by local media showed the crashed aircraft, including what appeared to be significant damage to the fuselage.
The plane went down in a mountainous region where coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine, are widely cultivated and where illegal armed groups such as the National Liberation Army and a dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operate.
In a similar incident, SaharaReporters reported on Wednesday that a video footage had captured the moment a wheel fell off a British Airways aircraft shortly after it took off from Las Vegas, United States, raising concerns about aircraft safety even as the flight continued without incident to its destination in London.
The incident involved what was believed to be a London-bound Airbus A350-1000 that departed Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas at about 9:10pm local time on Monday.
As the aircraft climbed after takeoff, video footage showed a wheel detaching from the rear section of the landing gear and dropping from the aircraft.
Despite the incident, flight tracking data from flightradar24 indicated that the aircraft continued its scheduled journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
The plane landed safely in London 27 minutes earlier than its scheduled arrival time, according to the tracking data.
The cause of the wheel separation was not immediately known.