2026 Colombian Air Force Lockheed C-130 crash
Colombian Aerospace Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules · Crashed after takeoff; under investigation
From Caucaya Airport (LQM) to Tres De Mayo Airport (PUU)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 69 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 126
- Survivors
- 57
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 57
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Lockheed C-130H Hercules
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed C-130
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- FAC-1016
- Operator
- Colombian Aerospace Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 69
- Route
- From Caucaya Airport (LQM)To Tres De Mayo Airport (PUU)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 23 March 2026, a Colombian Aerospace Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashed into dense jungle while taking off from Caucayá Airport in Puerto Leguízamo en route to Tres de Mayo Airport in Puerto Asís, both located in Colombia's Putumayo department near the border with Peru and Ecuador. There were 126 people on board, of whom 69 were killed, and 57 survived with injuries. It is the second deadliest crash in the history of the Colombian Aerospace Force and is, so far, the deadliest aviation crash of 2026.
Accident
At 9:50 a.m. COT the Lockheed C-130 departed on a troop transport mission for the National Army of Colombia, en route from Caucayá Airport in Puerto Leguízamo to Tres de Mayo Airport in Puerto Asís, both located in the Colombian department of Putumayo. Shortly after take-off, the aircraft began to lose altitude, with one of the wings clipping a tree. The C-130 crashed into a jungle near Puerto Leguízamo around 1.5 km from the airport, near the country's border with Peru. The moments before impact were caught on video. Burning wreckage was spread across parts of the jungle, with the plane being completely destroyed by a post-crash fire. The resulting fire caused ammunition on the plane to detonate.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Members of the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) and the Judicial Investigation Unit (SIJIN), as well as other aeronautical experts, were tasked with the investigation. Colombian defense minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez said there were no indications that the plane was brought down by "illegal actors", which Richard Emblin of The City Paper Bogotá speculated was alluding to the region being where multiple factions of the former FARC, a group involved in the Colombian conflict, reside and operate; coca cultivation is known to take place as well. According to Emblin, investigators were focusing on three hypotheses — whether the crash was caused by mechanical failure, pilot error, or excess weight. The commander of the air force, General Carlos Fernando Silva Rueda, indicated that a preliminary report clarifying the causes of the incident is expected to be completed before the end of April.
FAC commander General Carlos Fernando Silva stated that details of the crash are not yet known, apart from the fact that the plane experienced a problem. On the morning of 25 March, authorities announced the recovery of the plane's black box, which contained the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR).
On 9 April, the Air Force released a statement on its website confirming that the aircraft did not have valid insurance at the time of the accident. Reports indicate that the Air Force had warned as early as January 2026 of a shortfall of approximately 258 billion pesos in insurance coverage for all its aircraft, a situation that was reportedly known to the government but for which the necessary funds were not allocated. The statement was made amid over air safety conditions and the readiness of the Public Force's aircraft in the country.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2026 Colombian Air Force Lockheed C-130 crash” (revision 1374231291, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2026 Colombian Air Force Lockheed C-130 crash
- Revision
- 1374231291 · 2026-09-10 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q138773815
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2026 Colombian Air Force Lockheed C-130 crash" (page 82762908, revision 1374231291)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.