The crash of a Colombian military plane shortly after takeoff on Monday killed 69 people, mostly police officers, the military announced today.
57 people were injured, Reuters reports.
The old Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130 cargo plane was carrying 126 people and crashed after taking off from Puerto Leguizamo, on the border with Peru.
The cause of the accident is being investigated.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro blamed the accident on the age of the plane: "That piece of scrap metal was bought in 2020 and it crashed, and we wonder why," the BBC reported.
He blamed "bureaucratic problems" for slowing down his plan to modernize the armed forces' equipment and their aircraft.
Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sanchez Suarez said that the fire after the plane crashed caused the ammunition on board to explode and that there were no indications that the plane was attacked by any of the armed groups active in the region where it crashed.
This is the second time a C-130 Hercules has crashed in the last two months, the BBC reminds.
A Bolivian Army C-130 Hercules, carrying a shipment of banknotes, overshot the runway before landing at the airport in El Alto, Bolivia, on February 27 and crashed into vehicles on a nearby highway. 24 people were killed.
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