Colombian plane with 15 aboard crashes near Venezuela

An airplane carrying 15 people, including a lawmaker, crashed near Colombia's border with Venezuela on Wednesday, killing all passengers and crew, Colombia's civil aviation authority said. The plane, which was operated by state airline Satena, took off from the border city of Cucuta and lost contact with control towers shortly before it was due to land in nearby Ocana around noon (1700GMT). The Beechcraft 1900, operating as Satena Flight NSE 8849, lost contact with air traffic control minutes before its scheduled landing in Ocana, sparking an urgent search operation over the remote and mountainous Catatumbo region. The flight took off from Cucuta at about 11:42 am and last made contact at 11:54 am before vanishing from radar.
The aircraft was found after an extensive search by Colombia’s aviation and military authorities. Local media reported that the wreckage was located on Thursday and that no one on board survived, though formal confirmation from government officials was still expected. The plane had been carrying 13 passengers and two crew members when communication was lost shortly before its anticipated arrival at around 12:05 pm (local time). Search and rescue teams mobilised both air and ground assets over challenging terrain to locate the missing jet.
The Cucuta area is mountainous with highly changeable weather and swaths are controlled by Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, better known by its Spanish acronym ELN.  The government deployed the Air Force to search for the plane and recover the bodies. One lawmaker and one legislative candidate are feared to have been aboard.