All 15 people on board a small passenger aircraft are feared to have died. A Satena airline plane vanished earlier this afternoon after it lost communications with air traffic control in the North Santander, northern Colombia. The HK4709 flight was travelling from Cucuta to Ocaña on Wednesday with 15 people on board, including 13 passengers and two crew members.
Air traffic control lost communication with the aircraft at approximately 12pm local time (5pm GMT), it is reported. The small aircraft was scheduled to land at 12.10pm local time at Aguas Claras Airport in Ocaña, the second-largest populated area in the North Santander department.
Alarm was raised over the small aircraft, which is believed to have the capacity of carrying 19 passengers, after it failed to reach its destination.
The last location recorded by radar placed the aircraft in an area between the municipalities of Hacarí and La Playa de Belén, in the Catatumbo region, Colombian news outlet El Heraldo reports.
Satena confirmed that the took off at 11.42am and was scheduled to land at 12.05, but the last contact with the aircraft was at 11.54am, adding “all available resources” were deployed to find the aircraft.
The government also aided the search, having set up a Power Management Unit (PMU).
Maria Fernanda Rojas, Colombia’s minister of transport, wrote on X: “The Accident Investigation Directorate of @AerocivilCol reports that it is gathering information regarding the loss of communication from aircraft HK4709, which was flying the Cucuta-Ocaña route with 13 passengers and 2 crew members. The corresponding protocols have been activated, and we have already initiated PMU.”
After 9pm GMT, local radio station Caracol Radio Cúcuta said the PMU reported nobody had survived the crash, but officials haven’t yet issued an official statement.
Meanwhile, images have started to circulating on social media, seemingly showing the wreck of a small plane.
