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A small plane crashed Wednesday in a rural area of Norte de Santander province in northeast Colombia, killing all 15 people on board, including a member of congress, authorities said.
Satena, the state-owned airline that operated the flight, said officials from the community of Curasica notified authorities about where the plane had gone down and a rescue team was deployed to “assess the condition of the passengers.”
Colombia’s Transportation Ministry later released a statement saying that once the aircraft was located, “authorities regrettably confirmed that there were no survivors.”
The aircraft took off at 11:42 a.m. local time from the airport in Cucuta, where the department is located, bound for Ocana, a municipality surrounded by mountains. The flight typically lasts about 40 minutes.
Cause of crash not yet known
The aircraft’s final contact with air traffic control came minutes after takeoff, according to a statement released by Satena.
Officials did not provide a cause for the crash, but said there would be an investigation.
The small plane was carrying two crew members and 13 passengers, including Diogènes Quintero, 36, a member of the House of Representatives for Catatumbo, the airline said.
Quintero was a renowned human rights defender in the troubled border region with Venezuela, where he was from and where the accident occurred.
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A lawyer by profession, Quintero was elected in 2022 as one of 16 representatives in the lower chamber to represent the more than nine million victims of Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict.
The seats were created as part of a landmark 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the country’s largest guerrilla group known as the FARC.
Quintero’s U Party expressed remorse for his death in a statement and said he was “a leader committed to his region, with a firm vocation for service.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said via social media: “I am deeply saddened by these deaths. My heartfelt condolences to their families. May they rest in peace.”