15 people die, including Congressman Diógenes Quintero, when a Satena plane crashes in Norte de Santander

The representative to the Chamber for the seat of , Diógenes Quintero, and 14 other people died this Wednesday when the small plane of the state airline Satena in which they were traveling from Ocaña, two cities located in the northeast of Colombia. Among the passengers were also Carlos Salcedo, candidate for the same peace seat, part of both of their work teams, and two crew members. There have been no survivors in the incident. The accident occurred in Curasica, (Norte de Santander), in the Catatumbo region.

The accident has been confirmed by the unified command post (PMU) made up of Civil Aeronautics and the Ministry of Transportation after learning of the disappearance of the aircraft. The plane took off from Camilo Daza airport, in Cúcuta, at 11:42 a.m. local time, with a scheduled landing in Ocaña at 12:05 p.m. The last communication that was had with the aircraft – a Beechcraft 1900 with registration HK4709 rented to Satena by the private company Searca – was at 11:54, 12 minutes after takeoff from Cúcuta. The flight to Ocaña usually lasts about 25 minutes.

The last coordinate detected of the aircraft was while it was flying over a mountainous area between the municipality of Playa de Belén and Hacarí. In the middle of the afternoon, Satena indicated that the aircraft’s flight autonomy time ran out at 2:00 p.m. The airline has also explained that the plane’s emergency locator had not been activated.

Once the disappearance was known, three Air Force planes and two more from the Searca company began to fly over the places where the last location information was recorded. Civil Aeronautics and the Ministry of Transportation launched a search plan to find the aircraft and activated a unified command post to address the emergency. After 4:00 p.m., and with the help of the population of the area, the PMU confirmed the accident of the aircraft. Videos and photos shared on social networks show the crashed plane in a wooded area, completely destroyed.

The Government has sent its condolences to the families of the deceased. President Gustavo Petro has published a brief message on X: “I am very sorry for these dead. All my solidarity with their families and RIP.” The Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, has regretted “the circumstances in which the accident occurred” and has described it as “deeply painful”; while the Minister of Transportation, María Fernanda Rojas, has said that it is “a sad day” and explained that “the rescue forces arrived in the area with the expectation of rescue, but unfortunately there were no survivors.”

The messages of condolences have not been long in coming. The U Party, to which representative Quintero, 36, belonged, has expressed its “deep dismay at this painful loss.” “Diógenes was a leader committed to his region, with a firm vocation for service and a deep sense of public responsibility,” the party lamented in a statement. Quintero was a native of the municipality of Hacarí, in Catatumbo, one of the regions hardest hit by the conflict in Colombia. He was elected to occupy the peace seat for that region for the 2022-2026 legislature, and hoped to be re-elected as a congressman in the legislative elections on March 8.

Also on the damaged aircraft were Carlos Salcedo, candidate for the peace seat for the Catatumbo region; Natalia Cristina Acosta, assistant to Representative Quintero; Juan David Pacheco, former councilor of Ocaña, and his wife, María Sánchez.