Not to be confused with 2026 Bolivian Air Force Lockheed C-130 crash.

2026 Colombian Air Force Lockheed C-130 crash
The aircraft involved in the accident, photographed in 2020 with a previous registration
Accident
Date 23 March 2026
Summary Crashed after takeoff; under investigation
Site
Map
Aircraft
Aircraft type Lockheed C-130H Hercules
Operator Colombian Aerospace Force
Registration FAC-1016
Flight origin Caucayá Airport, Puerto Leguízamo, Colombia
Destination Tres de Mayo Airport, Puerto Asís, Colombia
Occupants 126
Passengers 115
Crew 11
Fatalities 70
Injuries 56
Survivors 56

On 23 March 2026, a Colombian Aerospace Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashed into dense jungle while taking off from Caucayá Airport in Puerto Leguízamo en route to Tres de Mayo Airport in Puerto Asís, both located in Colombia's Putumayo department near the border with Peru and Ecuador.[1] There were 126 people onboard, of whom 70 were killed, and 56 survived with injuries. It is the second deadliest crash in the history of the Colombian Aerospace Force and, as of March 2026, is the deadliest aviation crash of 2026.[2]

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was FAC-1016, a Lockheed C-130H Hercules operated by the Colombian Aerospace Force (FAC).[3] It was manufactured in 1984 and powered by four Allison T56 turboprop engines.[4] It was delivered to Colombia in September 2020 under serial number 83-0488 as part of the Excess Defense Articles program of the United States;[5] it was the first of three C-130Hs to have been delivered through this program.[6] It underwent maintenance between 2021 and 2023, including a complete structural overhaul and engine updates.[5] The airplane had accrued over 10,000 flight hours,[7] with around 537 hours in 2025.[8] According to FAC commander General Carlos Fernando Silva, the plane had over 20,000 hours of useful life remaining when acquired and, with proper maintenance, could have operated "for up to 40 more years."[9] At the time of the accident, it was said to have been in airworthy condition and the crew were "duly qualified".[10]

Since 2022, the Military Forces of Colombia had experienced six prior aviation accidents, which had caused political concerns about the age, sustainability and airworthiness regarding the country's air fleet.[8] According to El Tiempo, United States and Colombian military officials had been in talks in 2025 where the former had raised concerns about maintenance standards and the availability of spare parts for military aircraft such as the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and C-130 Hercules in Colombia.[7][8]

Passengers and crew

There were 126 people on board the aircraft,[11] consisting of 113 National Army of Colombia members, 2 police officers and 11 crew members.[11] The military officials were to be deployed on a mission in southern Colombia.[12]

Region

Puerto Leguízamo is a remote town and municipality in the Putumayo Department of Colombia, a region surrounded by the Amazon natural region.[13]

Accident

At 9:50 a.m. COT[12] the Lockheed C-130 departed on a troop transport mission for the National Army of Colombia, en route from Caucayá Airport in Puerto Leguízamo to Tres de Mayo Airport in Puerto Asís, both located in the Colombian department of Putumayo. Shortly after take-off, the aircraft began to lose altitude, with one of the wings clipping a tree. The C-130 crashed into a jungle near Puerto Leguízamo around 1.5 km (0.9 mi) from the airport,[13] near the country's border with Peru.[14] The moments before impact were caught on video.[5] Burning wreckage was spread across parts of the jungle,[13] with the plane being completely destroyed by a post-crash fire.[15] The resulting fire caused ammunition on the plane to detonate.[6][16]

Victims

Authorities confirmed 70 people were killed;[17] 56 survived, 14 of whom were in critical condition.[18] Among the deceased, six were Air Force crew members and two were police officers, with the rest being from the National Army.[19][20] Search and rescue operations began shortly after the crash.[6][21] According to Puerto Leguízamo's deputy mayor, Carlos Claros, the bodies of the deceased were taken to the town's morgue.[18] Some of the injured soldiers were flown to Bogotá for treatment, while other survivors were transported to a local hospital.[10] Once the bodies of victims had been moved from the town, the process of identification would be conducted by the Institute of Legal Medicine in Bogotá.[11]

Aftermath

According to authorities, the area in which the plane crashed was difficult for emergency personnel to reach, which impeded rescue efforts.[6] Residents were first to respond to the crash and pulled survivors from the wreckage; videos from bystanders showed people driving wounded soldiers on the backs of motorcycles to hospitals.[16][6] Other residents aided by trying to extinguish the fires in the field and surrounding foliage of the impact site.[22]

Military vehicles and trucks carrying soldiers later managed to reach the area to help with the rescue efforts.[16][6] Two planes, supplied with 74 beds, were sent to the area to transport the injured to hospitals throughout Colombia.[13] The Air Force later sent smaller planes, six more C-130Hs, and military helicopters such as Mil Mi-17s to support in the rescue efforts.[3] Search and rescue efforts were concluded by the end of 24 March.[11] Medical officials faced complications regarding the victim identification effort, as the exploding ammunition in the wreckage, in addition to the initial impact and post-crash fire, led to many of the victims' bodies becoming severely disfigured.[8] By 25 March, 24 victims were identified, with 10 victims' names revealed to the public.[23]

Investigation

Members of the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) and the Judicial Investigation Unit (SIJIN),[24] as well as other aeronautical experts, were tasked with the investigation.[11] Colombian defense minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez said there were no indications that the plane was brought down by "illegal actors",[13] which Richard Emblin of The City Paper Bogotá speculated was alluding to the region being where multiple factions of the former FARC, a group involved in the Colombian conflict, reside and operate; coca cultivation is known to take place as well. According to Emblin, investigators were focusing on three hypotheses — whether the crash was caused by mechanical failure, pilot error, or excess weight.[8] The commander of the air force, General Carlos Fernando Silva Rueda, indicated that a preliminary report clarifying the causes of the incident is expected to be completed before the end of April.[25]

FAC commander General Carlos Fernando Silva stated that details of the crash are not yet known, apart from the fact that the plane experienced a problem.[22] On the morning of 25 March, authorities announced the recovery of the plane's black box, which contained the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR).[26]

On 9 April, the Air Force released a statement on its website confirming that the aircraft did not have valid insurance at the time of the accident. Reports indicate that the Air Force had warned as early as January 2026 of a shortfall of approximately 258 billion pesos in insurance coverage for all its aircraft, a situation that was reportedly known to the government but for which the necessary funds were not allocated.[27] The statement was made amid over air safety conditions and the readiness of the Public Force's aircraft in the country.[25]

Responses

National

After the crash, the Colombian government announced that the country would go into three days of mourning.[28][29] Defence minister Sánchez offered condolences to the victims of the accident, expressing that "this event is profoundly painful for the country," adding that "we hope that our prayers can help to relieve some of the pain". Sánchez further noted that the aircraft involved was airworthy at the time of the crash and that the crew was "duly qualified."[22] The Military Forces of Colombia expressed their condolences to the victims of the crash, mentioning that their passing was "a source of grief for the Armed Forces and the entire country".[11]

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, released a statement on X , calling the crash "horrendous" and one that "should not have happened".[16] He continued, stressing his efforts to modernize the country's military, blaming "bureaucratic problems" from accelerating the effort further.[14] He said that he did not want additional delays in the plans and threatened that any civilian or military officials would be removed from office, claiming that "it is the lives of ‌our young ⁠people that are at stake."[6] Also Petro later commended the civilian first responders saying, "that is how a homeland is built".[30]

The next day, Petro further condemned the United States by calling the C-130 involved an "extremely expensive" and "crappy gift", blaming the previous administration for accepting donated equipment and calling on the army to not defend the plane due to it costing more to maintain than buying a new one, claiming "what doesn't serve them, they give away—and the 'gift' ends up costing more than buying it new" and asked "how much are the lost lives worth?"[28] In response, Iván Duque, the former president, defended his administration's handling of the armed forces by pointing to the fact that the C-130 was operated by many countries globally and noted that maintenance protocols were carried out on the aircraft before it was donated to Colombia. Additionally, he scrutinized Petro for his statements on social media just hours after the tragedy, instead calling for him to restrain from making comments during ongoing investigations.[8] Leading candidates involved in the upcoming 2026 Colombian presidential election called for an investigation into the crash as well as offered their condolences.[6][22]

International

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson released a statement that the company was committed to helping the country by aiding in the investigation of the crash.[22] Government officials from Panama, Ecuador, Spain, and Venezuela offered and expressed their condolences to the government and people of Colombia, as well as the victims of the crash and their families.[31][32][33]

See also

  • 2026 in aviation
  • List of accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed C-130 Hercules

References

  1. ^ Acosta, Luis Jaime (24 March 2026) [23 March 2026]. "At least 66 dead after Colombian military plane crashes shortly after takeoff". The Independent. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  2. ^ Pardo, Jhoan (23 March 2026). "Un avión Hércules de la Fuerza Aérea de Colombia se accidentó en Puerto Leguízamo, Putumayo: hay decenas de heridos". infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  3. ^ a b Spray, Aaron (24 March 2026). "66 killed in Colombian Air Force C-130 Hercules crash". Aerospace Global News. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  4. ^ "US-donated C-130 Hercules crashes in Colombia on takeoff, at least 80 dead". Türkiye Today. 23 March 2026. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  5. ^ a b c "Cae avión C-130H de la Fuerza Aérea Colombiana: esto sabemos" [Colombian Air Force C-130H plane crashes: this is what we know]. Aviacionline (in Spanish). 23 March 2026. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h "Colombia military plane crash kills 66, four still missing". Reuters. 23 March 2026. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  7. ^ a b Torres, Jhon (24 March 2026). Blanquicet, Jesús Antonio (ed.). "EE. UU. había expresado preocupación por mantenimiento y disponibilidad de repuestos de los Hércules C-130 y de los Black Hawk en Colombia" [The U.S. had expressed concern about the maintenance and availability of parts for the C-130 Hercules and the Black Hawk in Colombia.]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Emblin, Richard (25 March 2026). "Colombia probes aging Hercules crash as Petro calls aircraft "scrap"". The City Paper Bogotá. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  9. ^ "Colombia Hercules crash aftermath: political clash over causes intensifies days after tragedy". MercoPress. 26 March 2026. Archived from the original on 26 March 2026. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  10. ^ a b Zegarra, Gonzalo; Rios, Michael (23 March 2026). "Scores killed as Colombian military plane crashes on takeoff". CNN. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  11. ^ a b c d e f "Accidente de avión militar colombiano deja 69 muertos, al concluir las tareas de rescate" [Colombian military plane crash leaves 69 dead, rescue efforts conclude]. El Comentario (in Spanish). 24 March 2026. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  12. ^ a b Lara, Andrea (23 March 2026). "C-130 Hércules: así es el avión que se accidentó en Putumayo y la ruta que iba a cubrir" [C-130 Hercules: This is the plane that crashed in Putumayo and the route it was going to cover]. El Colombiano (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  13. ^ a b c d e "Colombian military plane crash kills at least 66, wounds dozens". Al Jazeera. AFP/Reuters/AP. 23 March 2026. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  14. ^ a b Alund, Natalie Neysa (23 March 2026). "At least 66 dead, dozens injured after Colombian military plane crash". USA Today. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  15. ^ Quevedo Delgado, Sara Valentina (23 March 2026). "Al menos 120 uniformados viajarían en el avión de la Fuerza Aérea que se accidentó en Putumayo: Mindefensa lamentó la tragedia" [At least 120 uniformed personnel were traveling on the Air Force plane that crashed in Putumayo: Defense Ministry lamented the tragedy]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  16. ^ a b c d Wells, Ione; Buschschlüter, Vanessa (23 March 2026). "Colombian military plane crash kills at least 66". BBC News. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  17. ^ "70 Killed, dozens injured in Colombian military plane crash". Gulf Times. 25 March 2026. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  18. ^ a b Rueda, Manuel (24 March 2026). "At least 66 killed in military plane crash in Colombia, head of armed forces says". AP News. Archived from the original on 24 March 2026. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  19. ^ Buschschlüter, Vanessa (24 March 2026). "Death toll from Colombian military plane crash rises to 69 as search ends". BBC News. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  20. ^ González Gaitán, José Andrés (23 March 2026). "Ascendió a 66 la cifra de muertos en accidente de avión de la FAC en Putumayo" [The death toll from the Colombian Air Force plane crash in Putumayo has risen to 66.]. Caracol Radio (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 23 March 2026. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  21. ^ Múnera Zambrano, Melissa (23 March 2026). "Gobernador del Putumayo confirmó ocho personas muertas y 14 en estado crítico tras accidente de avión Hércules de la Fuerza Aérea" [The governor of Putumayo confirmed eight people dead and 14 in critical condition after the Air Force Hercules plane crash.]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  22. ^ a b c d e Rogero, Tiago (24 March 2026). "At least 66 killed after Colombian military plane crashes in southern Amazon". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  23. ^ López, Carlos (25 March 2026). "Medicina Legal ya identificó a 24 de los 69 militares muertos en accidente aéreo en Puerto Leguízamo: estos son sus nombres" [Forensic Medicine has identified 24 of the 69 soldiers killed in the plane crash in Puerto Leguízamo: these are their names]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  24. ^ Quintero, Laura Nathalia (24 March 2026). "Primeras hipótesis de accidente de avión C-130 Hércules de Fuerza Aérea | Alcalde de Puerto Leguízamo dio reporte preliminar: 'Golpeó parte de atrás'" [Initial hypotheses regarding the Air Force C-130 Hercules plane crash | Mayor of Puerto Leguízamo gave a preliminary report: 'It hit the rear']. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  25. ^ a b "Colombian Air Force confirms that the C-130 Hercules aircraft that crashed in Putumayo was uninsured". FL360aero. 10 April 2026. Retrieved 10 April 2026.
  26. ^ Gutiérrez Henao, Luisa Fernanda (25 March 2026). "Hallaron caja negra del avión C-130 Hércules de la FAC accidentado en Putumayo que dejó 69 fallecidos: lo que hizo piloto segundos antes del choque" [The black box of the Colombian Air Force C-130 Hercules plane that crashed in Putumayo, leaving 69 dead, has been found: what the pilot did seconds before the crash]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  27. ^ "Comunicado 006/2026" [Press Release 006/2026] (in Spanish). Colombian Air Force. 9 April 2026. Retrieved 10 April 2026.
  28. ^ a b Spray, Aaron (25 March 2026). "Colombian president calls ex-USAF C-130H a 'crappy' gift after deadly crash". Aerospace Global News. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  29. ^ Agudelo, Mateo García (24 March 2026). "Presidente Gustavo Petro decreta tres días de duelo nacional por tragedia aérea en Putumayo" [President Gustavo Petro decrees three days of national mourning for the air tragedy in Putumayo]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  30. ^ Majumdar, Roshni (24 March 2026). "At least 69 killed in Colombia military plane crash". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  31. ^ Arias, Juan Andrés (23 March 2026). "Reacciones de Colombia y el mundo tras el accidente del avión de la Fuerza Aérea en el Putumayo" [Reactions from Colombia and the world after the Air Force plane crash in Putumayo]. El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 23 March 2026. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  32. ^ "España envía condolencias y solidaridad a Colombia por accidente" [Spain sends condolences and solidarity to Colombia after the accident]. Prensa Latina (in Spanish). 24 March 2026. Archived from the original on 25 March 2026. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  33. ^ Sánchez, Carlos (23 March 2026). "Venezuela expresa sus condolencias al pueblo de Colombia tras accidente aéreo en Putumayo" [Venezuela expresses its condolences to the people of Colombia following the plane crash in Putumayo]. Radio of the South (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 March 2026.