Military plane crashed in Colombia, leaving 69 dead, collided with three trees after takeoff

Bogotá .- The Hercules C-130 aircraft of the Colombian Aerospace Force (FAC) that crashed on March 23 in Puerto Leguízamo, in the Amazonian department of Putumayo, leaving 69 uniformed personnel dead, collided with three trees four seconds after takeoff, which caused it to lose power, according to the preliminary report released this Thursday. "The impact against the first tree would have occurred between the fuselage and a section of the propeller of engine number three. Subsequently, the second and third trees would have been impacted by the left section of the fuselage and the propellers of engines number one and number two," said the Director of Operational Safety of the FAC, Colonel Luis Fernando Giraldo. During the presentation of the report, the officer indicated that as a consequence of the contact with the trees and, according to the analysis of the remains of the engines, "a loss of power was observed in engine one as well as a significant decrease in power in engine two", which led to "an uncontrolled descent" of the plane and subsequent crash 2,080 meters from the end of the runway.

The report on the military plane crash in Colombia

The preliminary report, which does not offer conclusions about the cause of the accident but explains what happened in the final seconds of the frustrated flight, indicates that the total weight of the plane was 133,000 pounds at the time of takeoff, that is, 6,000 pounds less than the 139,000 authorized for this maneuver.

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"This is a preliminary report that does not aim to establish conclusions but to determine the causes why an aircraft that was in perfect condition, with a trained crew (…) would crash into some trees, which caused a loss of power," assured Colonel Giraldo.

The accident that left 69 uniformed personnel dead and 57 people injured, is considered the worst air tragedy of the Colombian Military Forces, and occurred seconds after the aircraft, with 126 people on board, took off from Puerto Leguízamo airport bound for Puerto Asís, when it crashed to the ground and caught fire after the impact.

The President's Questions

The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has maintained from the beginning, without evidence, that the age of the plane, 43 years old, could have been a determining factor in the accident, a hypothesis he has publicly defended despite the fact that the preliminary report does not establish such causes. Regarding the aircraft's conditions, the investigation indicates that the last airworthiness certificate for the aircraft was issued on December 5, 2024 and "was valid on the date of the event". The president has expressed his disagreement with the technical version of the FAC, which assures that the aircraft was in flight conditions, a position that has generated debate among experts and political sectors, who reject what Petro has expressed and have asked to wait for the conclusive results of the investigation before pointing out responsibilities.