Officials said the C-130 went down minutes after takeoff in Puerto Leguizamo with 128 people aboard, leaving dozens injured and four still missing.
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA— A Colombian military transport plane carrying troops and police officers crashed shortly after takeoff Monday in the southern town of Puerto Leguizamo, killing at least 66 people, injuring dozens more and setting off a major rescue effort in a remote corner of the Amazon region.
The crash immediately became one of Colombia’s deadliest military aviation disasters in recent years and raised new questions about the condition of the armed forces’ aging aircraft fleet. Military leaders said the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules had 128 people aboard and went down about two kilometers from the airport. Officials said there was no sign of an attack by an illegal armed group, but the cause of the crash remained under investigation as survivors were flown to larger hospitals and search teams continued to look for four missing service members.
Authorities said the aircraft took off from Puerto Leguizamo, in Putumayo province near the borders with Peru and Ecuador, and ran into trouble almost immediately. Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said the plane was transporting troops within Putumayo when it crashed. Gen. Hugo Alejandro López Barreto, head of Colombia’s armed forces, said 115 Army personnel, 11 crew members and two National Police officers were on board. By Monday night, he said, 66 people had been confirmed dead. Air Force Commander Carlos Fernando Silva said the aircraft came down about two kilometers from the airport after what he described as a problem during the initial phase of flight. Firefighter Eduardo San Juan Callejas told Colombian media that the plane appeared to hit near the end of the runway and that one wing later clipped a tree as the aircraft fell. He said the impact triggered a fire and blasts from explosive material being carried on board.
The first rescue effort did not come from armored vehicles or specialized emergency units. It came from residents of Puerto Leguizamo and nearby areas, who rushed toward the smoke when the aircraft went down. Videos circulated by Colombian outlets showed local people and soldiers moving the wounded away from the burning wreckage, with some injured troops carried on the backs of motorcycles along dirt roads before larger military vehicles reached the site. Deputy Mayor Carlos Claros said the bodies were taken to the town morgue while the town’s two clinics received the injured. López said 57 survivors were hospitalized, and officials later began transferring many of them out of the town for more advanced treatment. Silva said the air force sent two aircraft fitted with 74 beds to evacuate the injured to Bogota and other cities. Officials praised local residents for acting before outside help could fully arrive. Claros said their quick response saved lives in a place where distance and terrain can turn minutes into hours.
Much about the crash was still unknown by late Monday. Officials had not released a formal timeline for the takeoff, the distress sequence or the final communications from the cockpit. They also had not publicly identified all of the dead or missing. Military commanders said there were no indications that rebels or any other illegal armed group had attacked the aircraft, an important point in a part of Colombia where armed organizations and trafficking routes remain a security concern. That early assessment narrowed attention to other possibilities, including a mechanical failure or a problem during takeoff. Silva said only that the plane had a problem and went down outside the airport perimeter. Aviation analyst Erich Saumeth said the aircraft had been donated by the United States in 2020 and underwent a detailed overhaul three years later, including inspections of its engines and replacement of key components. He said investigators would need to determine why the Hercules, which has four propellers, lost performance so quickly after departure. Until the flight record, maintenance history and crew actions are fully reviewed, the specific cause remains uncertain.
The setting of the crash added to the scale of the emergency. Puerto Leguizamo is a small, isolated town in Colombia’s southern Amazon basin, reachable only with difficulty from many parts of the country. The area sits near the Peruvian border and has long served as a strategic military zone because of river routes, jungle terrain and the presence of armed groups involved in trafficking and territorial control. The C-130 Hercules has been part of Colombia’s military operations for decades, moving troops, equipment and supplies into places where road access is poor or nonexistent. Reuters reported that Colombia first acquired Hercules planes in the late 1960s, and the aircraft remain central to military logistics in a country shaped by a six-decade internal conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands. That long history gave Monday’s crash added weight. It was not only a loss of life, but a blow to an aircraft type long tied to the state’s presence in some of its hardest-to-reach regions.
The political fallout began almost as soon as the death toll rose. President Gustavo Petro said bureaucratic obstacles had delayed his effort to modernize military aircraft and other equipment and said officials who could not meet that challenge should be removed. His statement turned the crash into a fresh point of debate over defense planning, procurement and readiness during the final stretch of his administration. Critics answered that budget decisions under Petro have reduced flight hours for military aircraft, which they argue can leave crews with less experience. Neither side offered immediate evidence that those broader disputes caused Monday’s crash, but both showed how quickly an aviation disaster can widen into a political fight. Lockheed Martin said it was prepared to help Colombia during the investigation. Military authorities were expected to secure the crash site, collect remains, review maintenance records and examine whether the crew encountered an engine, runway or load-related emergency. Officials had not yet announced a public hearing date or a final accident report schedule, but the next steps were expected to include victim identification, continued medical transfers and a technical inquiry led by military aviation authorities.
At the crash site, the images were stark: a black plume rising above a field, troops and townspeople moving through dense greenery, and a wounded line of survivors sent toward care in a community with limited medical capacity. In public statements, officials kept their language measured, but the scale of the loss was unmistakable. López said, “Sadly, as a consequence of this tragic accident, 66 of our military elements died.” Claros thanked residents who ran toward danger instead of away from it. Sánchez called the crash profoundly painful for the country. Those remarks captured the mood around Puerto Leguizamo, where the response became a mix of military discipline and civilian improvisation. The town’s role was not ceremonial. In the first hour, it was essential. People from the area helped pull the injured from the wreckage, tried to contain the fire and kept the evacuation moving until the national response could catch up.
By late Monday, Colombia’s military said the death toll stood at 66, 57 survivors had been evacuated for treatment and four people were still missing. The next milestone is the recovery and identification effort, followed by the formal accident investigation expected to continue in the coming days.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.