Plane crash kills Colombian lawmaker and 14 others

A twin-propeller aircraft carrying 15 people, including a Colombian lawmaker, Diogenes Quintero, crashed in a mountainous region near the Venezuelan border. 

According to AFP, the aircraft departed from the border city of Cúcuta and lost contact with air traffic control shortly before it was scheduled to land in the nearby town of Ocaña at about 5:00 p.m. GMT on January 28. 

“There are no survivors,” an official of the aviation authority told AFP. 

The plane was carrying 13 passengers and two crew members.

The government deployed the Colombian Air Force to locate the aircraft and recover the bodies. 

Local parliamentarian Wilmer Carrillo expressed concern over the incident, saying, “We have received with concern the information about the air accident in which my colleague, Diogenes Quintero, Carlos Salcedo and their teams were travelling.”

Quintero is a member of Colombia’s Chamber of Deputies, while Salcedo is a candidate in the upcoming elections. 

The crash adds to a history of f@tal aviation accidents involving prominent figures in Colombia. In January 2025, a private plane crashed in central-eastern Colombia, k!lling all six people on board, including singer Yeison Jiménez.