Colombian plane
carrying 15 soldiers
still missing
Despite a three-day
intensive search, there
has still been no sign
of the Colombian plane
carrying 15 soldiers and
three civilians which
has been missing since
Monday.
"Lamentably, an accident
occurred," the commander
of Colombia's armed
forces, General Freddy
Padilla said on
Wednesday.
"The aircraft sent an
alarm in a humid,
mountainous area, and we
have had no success in
the rescue," he said.
Colombia's armed forces
said on Monday that
National Air Company
flight number HK 4055,
carrying Number 10
Mobile Brigade soldiers,
has been missing since
Monday in the central
Colombian province Meta.
Jorge Diaz, Commander of
Colombia's Civil Defense
Organization, said that
three Colombian Air
Force aircraft, military
units and land rescue
units are doing all they
can to reach the area
where the accident is
thought to have taken
place.
"There is an emergency
signal and we are
searching alongside Red
Cross staff and mountain
rescue-trained
volunteers. They have
material for five days'
worth of searching," he
said.
Rescuers said that a
resident had seen the
plane fly over his home
and then disappear.
"A man has said he saw
an aircraft and then
could no longer hear it,
shortly after it flew
over his home," said
Diaz's colleague Manuel
Mantilla.
"This is a hypothesis
that we are trying to
verify. It seems there
was no bad weather in
the upper sky, but there
were a lot of clouds
lower down," he said.
The soldiers had been
traveling to the Meta
town of La Uribe for a
two-month training
session. Their families
have now gone to the
region's military
garrisons to wait for
news. |
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