A small plane crashed Monday morning in a residential area of Medellin, in northwestern Colombia, killing all eight people on board, official sources said. “There was a plane crash in the Belen Rosales sector,” city mayor Daniel Quintero said on his Twitter account.
The aircraft crashed into a house, the upper floor or floors of which were destroyed, according to images released by the emergency services. Firefighters were putting out the last flames of the blaze, amid scattered tiles and collapsed brick walls.
The plane, which last radioed at 10:14 a.m. (3:14 p.m. GMT) was carrying six passengers and two crew members, emergency services said. These eight people died, said Olaya Herrera airport, one of Medellin’s two airports, located in the city center, from where the small aircraft took off shortly after. The airport did not specify the nationality of the victims but published the list of their names, all of which sounded local.
An “engine failure on takeoff”
In videos circulating on social media, a thick plume of black smoke was visible, rising above houses, amid the din of sirens from emergency vehicles rushing to the scene. “It is a Piper twin engine covering the Medellin link to the municipality of Pizarro in the (neighboring) department of Choco,” Quintero said. The plane “reported engine failure on takeoff and failed to return to Olaya Herrera airport”.
Capital of the mountainous province of Antioquia, in the foothills of the Central Cordillera, Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia and is located in the heart of the steep-sided Aburra Valley. In 2016, a plane carrying Brazilian football team Chapecoense crashed in the mountains near the town, killing 71 of the 77 people on board, including 16 players.