Sawt Falasteen - Colombia plane crash investigators battle poor weather to reach site

Images shared online show the wreckage of the fuselage surrounded by bushes and mud.

Locals and farmers were the first to arrive at the crash site, the transport ministry said, which lies in a rugged, densely covered tract of the Andes' eastern range with highly changeable weather.

Swaths of the surrounding countryside are controlled by Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, better known by its Spanish acronym ELN.

While the cause of the crash was not immediately known, the Colombian aviation authority highlighted poor weather conditions.

"We recorded persistently adverse weather conditions at the impact site," Colonel Alvaro Bello, head of accident investigation at Colombia's Civil Aeronautics Authority told a press conference.

The twin-propeller plane was carrying two crew and 13 passengers, including Diogenes Quintero, 36, a member of Colombia's chamber of deputies, and Carlos Salcedo, a candidate for the upcoming elections.

The plane took off from the Colombian border city of Cucuta and lost contact with air traffic control shortly before it was due to land in nearby Ocana around noon (1700 GMT).

The flight was scheduled to take 23 minutes and was operated by Colombian state airline Satena.

The government deployed the Air Force to carry out a search of the area.

The last known location of the aircraft was in the Norte de Santander area at an altitude of 1,700 meters, according to the Flight Radar flight tracker.

"We know that it crashed in a rural village" called Curasica in the La Playa de Belen municipality, Transport Minister Maria Fernanda Rojas told reporters.

So far, seven bodies have been recovered, according to North Santander state governor William Villamizar, speaking to local news magazine Semana.

"I deeply regret these deaths," President Gustavo Petro wrote on X. "All my solidarity to their families."

Quintero's party described the lawmaker as "a leader committed to his community."

With thick jungle and snow-capped mountain ranges, much of Colombia is difficult to traverse by land.

Planes link many towns that in less rugged countries would be connected by train or highway.

J.Saleh--SF-PST