Colombian politician Diógenes Quintero among 15 killed in plane crash

A small plane crashed Wednesday in a rural area of Norte de Santander province in northeast Colombia, killing all 15 people on board including a member of congress, authorities said.

Satena, the state-owned airline that operated the flight, said local officials in the community of Curasica notified authorities about where the plane had gone down and a rescue team was deployed to “assess the condition of the passengers.”

Colombia’s Transportation Ministry later released a statement saying that “once the aircraft was located on site, authorities regrettably confirmed that there were no survivors.”

Funeral hearses carrying the bodies of the 15 passengers dead in a plane crash operated by Satena, Colombia’s state-owned airline, arrive at La Playa de Belen municipality in Colombia, on January 28, 2026.