At least 66 people were killed when a Colombian air force C-130H carrying 128 people crashed Monday morning shortly after takeoff from Puerto Leguízamo, in the southern part of the country on the border with Peru. Another four people are missing. The plane took off about 9:50 a.m. local time carrying soldiers and police officers on a troop transport mission. Of those confirmed dead, 58 were in the army, six were air force, and two were police. The survivors had a variety of injuries.
“At this time we don’t have any more details except that as soon as it took off, the airplane suffered a problem and descended toward the ground, a couple of kilometers from the airport,” Gen. Carlos Fernando Silva Rueda, the commander of the Colombian air force, said in a video statement in Spanish. A video shows the plane, with the gear still extended, struggling to say airborne before disappearing off the frame.
Se conocieron videos minutos antes del accidente del avión Hércules del Ejército de la Fuerza Aeroespacial Colombiana, ocurrido en Puerto Leguízamo, Putumayo. Esto se sabe.
— Noticias Caracol (@NoticiasCaracol) March 23, 2026
Siga la señal en vivo aquí 👉 https://t.co/JkEFOMUN8Q pic.twitter.com/AUzwYIwIGA
Turbine engines don’t backfire. Those were explosions or gunshots before it started down.
Turbines don’t “backfire” the same way as a recip, but a compressor stall can create the same sound and blow flames fore&aft in a pretty good simulation of an IC engine “backfire”.
Remember, we are at war and that was a military aircraft in a country America has in its sights. Not to quibble, but the reports I heard 2 days ago said 110 soldiers on the C-130 didn’t make it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3c3MUpfNCo