A passenger plane has crashed in northern Colombia, killing all 15 people on board, state-owned airline Satena has confirmed.
In a statement, the company said its plane, a Beechcraft 1900, “had suffered a fatal accident”, but gave no further details. The wreckage is now located in a mountainous area.
The official passenger list includes lawmaker Diogenes Quintero Amaya and Carlos Salcedo, a candidate in the upcoming congressional elections.
Satena said earlier that contact with the plane was lost 11 minutes before it was scheduled to land in the town of Ocaña, near the Venezuelan border, at 12:05 p.m. local time (17:05 GMT) on Wednesday.
According to the airline, NSE Flight 8849 took off from the city of Cúcuta, about 100 km northeast of Ocaña, carrying 13 passengers and two crew members.
A search operation was immediately launched in the mountainous area and a telephone helpline was set up for relatives of those on board the plane.
The Colombian armed forces assisted in search efforts in the area where the plane went missing, which includes areas controlled by the Colombian ELN guerrilla group.