At Least 66 Dead After Colombian Air Force C-130 Hercules Crashes in Amazon Jungle

A Colombian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying 125 people crashed shortly after takeoff from Puerto Leguízamo in the southern department of Putumayo on Monday, March 23, 2026, killing at least 66 people and injuring dozens more. The aircraft went down at approximately 10:00 a.m. local time, falling to the ground roughly 700 meters from the north runway in a jungle area near the borders with Peru and Ecuador. According to a military source cited by AFP, the dead included 58 soldiers, six air force members, and two police officers. The plane was transporting 114 military personnel on the Puerto Leguízamo-Puerto Asís route, with a crew of 11. Burning wreckage scattered across the jungle vegetation, and AFP images showed the aircraft consumed by flames and thick black smoke.

Death toll disputed as bodies pile up in local morgue The casualty figures fluctuated sharply throughout the day as officials struggled to account for all 125 people on board. Puerto Leguízamo Deputy Mayor Carlos Claros initially reported 33 dead and 81 injured, later updating the count to 64 bodies in the local morgue, according to local outlet Noticias RCN. Putumayo Governor Jhon Gabriel Molina confirmed 34 dead in an interview with Caracol Noticias, noting that 21 people had still not been identified among the 104 accounted for. Mayor Luis Emilio Bustos Morales of Puerto Leguízamo told El País that 64 deaths had been confirmed by nightfall. The Ministry of Defense had not publicly confirmed any specific death toll by late evening, citing the difficulty of identifying bodies due to the fire's severity. 66 (people) — maximum reported death toll from the crash

Military source (AFP): 66, Mayor Luis Emilio Bustos Morales: 64, Deputy Mayor Carlos Claros (morgue count): 64, Governor Jhon Gabriel Molina: 34, President Gustavo Petro: 34

Minister rules out attack, cites ammunition fire for explosions Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez, appointed by President Gustavo Petro in February 2025, said the aircraft "was airworthy and the crew was duly qualified," ruling out any attack by illegal armed groups. The minister acknowledged that videos circulating on social media appeared to capture the sound of gunfire, but explained that the noise came from the troops' ammunition detonating as a result of the fire aboard the aircraft. „As a consequence of the fire of the aircraft, part of the ammunition transported by the troops detonated, which corresponds to what is heard in some videos circulating on social media.” — Pedro Sánchez via Europa Press The crash site lies in a region where rebel groups linked to drug trafficking operate and where large quantities of coca are cultivated, making an attack a plausible initial concern for authorities. Farmer Noé Mota, a resident of the area, described the moment of impact. „I heard an explosion in the air and, when I looked, the plane was coming near the house on my plot.” — Noé Mota via AFP The cause of the crash remained under investigation, with the aircraft having failed to achieve full takeoff before falling approximately 700 meters from the runway, according to Noticias RCN.

Petro calls for fleet modernization as locals form human chains President Gustavo Petro described the event as a "horrific accident that should never have happened" and called for modernization of the military fleet, though he stopped short of linking the fleet's condition directly to the crash. Petro shared video footage on social media showing the aircraft attempting to gain altitude before plummeting to the ground. The first responders were not emergency services but residents of the rural district of La Tagua, north of Puerto Leguízamo, who formed human chains to pass water to the burning wreckage and transported injured survivors on motorcycles to local care centers. The mayor of Puerto Leguízamo told Caracol Radio that the town's medical infrastructure was wholly inadequate for an event of this scale, describing facilities as a small naval dispensary and a first-level hospital without an operating room or specialists. At least 48 of the injured were transferred to the Military Hospital in Bogotá, 12 to the María Inmaculada hospital in Florencia in the department of Caquetá, and 10 to a military forces hospital dispensary in Puerto Leguízamo itself. The governments of Ecuador, Venezuela, and the United States offered condolences to the families of the victims. The crash was the second involving a C-130 Hercules in South America in less than a month. On February 27, 2026, a Bolivian military C-130 transporting banknotes crashed while landing near La Paz, killing at least 24 people. The C-130 Hercules has been manufactured by Lockheed Martin since the 1950s and remains one of the most widely used military transport aircraft in the world, valued for its ability to operate from improvised runways.