Colombia Plane Crash Claims 13 Lives

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Nando Times

BOGOTA, Colombia (July 9, 2000 7:09 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com)

A twin-engine plane crashed Sunday and burst into flames shortly after taking off south of the capital, killing at least 13 people, authorities said.

Seven injured passengers were pulled from the charred wreckage of the Curtis C-46, and one died later at a hospital.

One of the aircraft's engines apparently caught fire in flight. However, authorities said they were just beginning to investigate the crash outside Villavicencio, a state capital 45 miles from Bogota.

"The plane took off normally but soon afterward an engine caught fire and I realized it was going down," Edgar Pabon, a policeman who survived the accident, told the local RCN television station from a clinic where he was being treated for minor injuries.

"Everybody on board was panicking," Pabon added "I was saved by a miracle."

Three other police officers on the plane were killed, along with the aircraft's four crew members, officials said.

The C-46 was a private plane, and the police officers were not thought to be on official business.

Twenty people were thought to have been on board. One was unaccounted for and may be in the wreckage, Meta State police chief Col. Yesid Vasquez reported.

Villavicencio resident Eulalia Baquero said she heard the aircraft making "strange noises" before seeing it plummet two minutes after takeoff into a grove of trees on a farm located about a mile from the city airport.

The flight was headed for Mitu, a city near the eastern border with Brazil.

Local media reported the plane was 40 years old but had been inspected and tested two months ago. That report could not immediately be confirmed.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), July 10, 2000


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