Airplane accident

A small plane has crashed in a rural area of Norte de Santander province in north-east Colombia, killing all 15 people on board, including a member of congress, authorities say.Satena, the state-owned airline that operated the flight, said local officials in the community of Curasica notified authorities as to where the plane had gone down and a rescue team was deployed to "assess the condition of the passengers".Colombia's transport ministry later released a statement saying that "once the aircraft was located on site, authorities regrettably confirmed that there were no survivors".The aircraft, registration number HK4709, took off at 11:42am local time on Wednesday from the airport in Cúcuta, the department's capital, bound for Ocaña on a flight that typically lasts about 40 minutes.The aircraft's final contact with air traffic control came 12 minutes after take-off, according to a statement released by Satena.Officials did not provide a cause for the crash, but said there would be an investigation.
Images released by local media showed the crashed plane, which appeared to have sustained significant damage to the fuselage.The area where the plane crashed is a mountainous region planted with coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine, and where illegal armed groups such as the National Liberation Army and a dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operate.The small plane was carrying two crew members and 13 passengers, including Diógenes Quintero, 36, a member of the House of Representatives for Catatumbo, the airline said. Carlos Salcedo, a social leader who was running for Congress, was also among the victims.Mr Quintero was a renowned human rights defender in the troubled border region with Venezuela, where he was from and where the accident occurred.
A lawyer by profession, he 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 guerilla group, the FARC.His party, the U Party, expressed their remorse for his death 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."