Colombian authorities search for missing plane carrying 15 people

BOGOTA, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Colombian aviation and military authorities launched an operation on Wednesday to locate a small commercial plane carrying 15 people – 13 passengers and two crew members – that lost communication while flying in northeast Colombia, state-owned airline Satena said.

“Flight NSE 8849, covering the Cucuta-Ocana route, which took off at around 11:42 a.m. and was scheduled to land at around 12:05 p.m., reported its last contact with air traffic control at 11:54 a.m. today,” Satena said in a statement.

Newspaper El Tiempo reported that lawmaker Diogenes Quintero and Carlos Salcedo, a candidate to Congress ahead of elections in March, were aboard the aircraft.

Representatives for Quintero said in a statement that they had not had contact with the politician or his assistant, Natalia Acosta Salcedo, since the plane took off.

“We are praying for our friends right now,” the statement said.

Colombia’s Transportation Minister Mafe Rojas said protocols were put into place aimed at tracking down the plane.

The plane lost contact in a mountainous area planted with coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine, and where illegal armed groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN) and a dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) operate.

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra and Luis Jaime Acosta; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and Kylie Madry)