Plane crashed in a mountainous region known for coca plantations. 15 people, including a politician, died
A Satena Airlines plane lands on November 9, 2022 at Simon Bolivar International Airport in La Guaira, Venezuela. Illustrative image. PHOTO: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia
Fifteen people, thirteen passengers and two crew members, including a local lawmaker, died in a plane crash after the wreckage of a plane that went missing at noon in Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, was found, the country's aviation authority announced on Wednesday, stating that “there are no survivors”, AFP and Reuters write.
The aircraft, a Beechcraft 1900 of the private company Searca, had taken off from the border town of Cucuta (north) and disappeared from radar screens shortly before its scheduled landing in Ocana, a nearby town, during a flight with a scheduled duration of 23 minutes.
Air traffic control lost contact with the plane 12 minutes after takeoff, state airline Satena said.
Satena did not specify the cause of the accident and said that the plane's emergency transmitter was not activated.
The government has mobilized the air force to search and recover the bodies in this mountainous area in the department of Norte de Santander.
Images shared on social media show wreckage scattered through dense vegetation.
UPDATE: 15 KILLED in Satena plane crash near Cúcuta, Colombia https://t.co/QQK3QXCdd6 pic.twitter.com/QvznAPDMg5
— Rapid Report (@RapidReport2025) January 28, 2026
The causes of the accident are currently unknown.
The plane was last located at an altitude of between 1,000 and 1,300 meters, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar.
Legislator Diogenes Quintero and members of his team were on board the plane, as was Carlos Salcedo, a candidate for Congress in March elections, according to the passenger list released by the airline.
The area where the plane crashed is a mountainous region known for plantations of coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine, and where armed groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN) and a dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operate.
