Plane crash in Colombia kills 15, source and local media say

By Nelson Bocanegra and Luis Jaime Acosta

BOGOTA, Jan 28 (Reuters) – A plane crashed in northeast Colombia on Wednesday, killing all 15 people on board including a lawmaker, a source from the nation’s air force and local media said.

The Beechcraft 1900 twin-engined turboprop plane took off before noon from Cucuta, on the border with Venezuela, for a short flight to the town of Ocana, state-run airline Satena said.

Air traffic control lost contact with the plane 12 minutes into the flight, the carrier added.

The plane’s emergency beacon had not been activated, Satena later said.

Lawmaker Diogenes Quintero and his assistant were aboard the plane, representatives for Quintero said in a statement. Newspaper El Tiempo also reported that Carlos Salcedo, a candidate for Congress ahead of elections in March, was on board.

The area where the plane disappeared is a mountainous region planted with coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine, and where illegal armed groups such as the National Liberation Army and a dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operate.

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