Bogotá.- The plane of the Colombian company Satena that disappeared this Wednesday in the department of Norte de Santander (bordering Venezuela) was found crashed with its 15 passengers dead, authorities confirmed.
The Secretary of Citizen Security of Norte de Santander, George Quintero, confirmed to Noticias Caracol that the aircraft was found by farmers from the village of Curasica, in the municipality of Playa de Belén, who informed the authorities that they did not find any living person.
Colombian congressman Diógenes Quintero Amaya was one of the 15 people on board the plane, according to the representative’s team.
Quintero Amaya was a representative to the Chamber for the Special Transitional Peace Constituency (Citrep) of the Catatumbo region and reached that seat in 2022 with the support of communities victimized by forced displacement in that area of the country.
What is known about the Satena plane that crashed in Colombia?
The aircraft took off from Camilo Daza airport, in Cúcuta, capital of Norte de Santander, towards Ocaña, but did not arrive at the scheduled time at the Aguas Claras airport in that city, the second in the department.
According to Satena, “flight NSE8849, which covered the Cúcuta-Ocaña route, took off around 11:42 am and was scheduled to land around 12:05 pm, reported its last contact with air traffic control at 11:54 am.”
The plane is a US-made Beechcraft with registration HK4709 and a capacity for 19 passengers, which is operated by the company Searca, according to Satena.
“The Accident Investigation Directorate of the Civil Aeronautics (Aerocivil) reports that it is gathering information regarding the loss of communication with the aircraft HK4709 that covers the Cúcuta-Ocaña route with 13 passengers and two crew members,” stated the Minister of Transport, María Fernanda Rojas, on her X account.
The flight between Cúcuta and Ocaña takes approximately 25 minutes and, according to the flight tracking platform Flightradar, the plane stopped communicating when flying through a mountainous area between the towns of Ábrego and La Playa, in Norte de Santander.
