Squawk7777
13th Feb 2003, 18:12
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - A U.S. government plane carrying five people crashed on Thursday in a jungle area in southern Colombia controlled by Marxist rebels and it was not known if anyone survived, Colombian and State Department officials said.
Civil aviation officials in Colombia said four Americans and one Colombian were aboard the plane, but State Department spokesman Charles Barclay said he could not confirm the nationalities and that a search and rescue mission was under way.
The plane, described by Barclay as a single-engine Cessna 208, crashed as it was attempting an emergency landing caused by engine failure, U.S. Embassy officials in Bogota said.
"The plane crashed near Florencia while attempting an emergency landing at about 9 a.m.," a U.S. Embassy official told Reuters.
The Cessna was apparently taking part in U.S.-sponsored drug eradication missions in the province of Caqueta, some 250 miles south of the capital, Bogota, Colombian military sources said. Barclay said he could not confirm that.
"There is an ongoing search and rescue operation but to what extent they have been able to get to the crash site and figure out whether there are any survivors is unclear at this point," he said. "The cause was apparently engine failure."
The United States has spent about $2 billion in mostly military aid in recent years to help the war-torn Andean nation destroy the world's largest cocaine industry. A large chunk of the U.S. aid is spent in aerial spraying of drug crops.
Large parts of Caqueta are controlled by rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a 17,000-member guerrilla army known by its Spanish acronym "FARC." It is branded by Washington as a "terrorist" organization.
Crop dusters spraying coca-leaf -- the raw material for cocaine -- frequently come under rebel fire. Many crop dusters are U.S.-hired planes. In March 2002 a U.S. crop-dusting plane contracted by the Pentagon crashed in Caqueta after hitting a tree during a drug eradication mission. That pilot was not an American.
Colombia is torn by a four-decade guerrilla war pitting leftist rebels against right-wing paramilitary outlaws and the U.S.-backed military. The war, increasingly funded by the booming drug trade, claims the lives of thousand of people every year.
Civil aviation officials in Colombia said four Americans and one Colombian were aboard the plane, but State Department spokesman Charles Barclay said he could not confirm the nationalities and that a search and rescue mission was under way.
The plane, described by Barclay as a single-engine Cessna 208, crashed as it was attempting an emergency landing caused by engine failure, U.S. Embassy officials in Bogota said.
"The plane crashed near Florencia while attempting an emergency landing at about 9 a.m.," a U.S. Embassy official told Reuters.
The Cessna was apparently taking part in U.S.-sponsored drug eradication missions in the province of Caqueta, some 250 miles south of the capital, Bogota, Colombian military sources said. Barclay said he could not confirm that.
"There is an ongoing search and rescue operation but to what extent they have been able to get to the crash site and figure out whether there are any survivors is unclear at this point," he said. "The cause was apparently engine failure."
The United States has spent about $2 billion in mostly military aid in recent years to help the war-torn Andean nation destroy the world's largest cocaine industry. A large chunk of the U.S. aid is spent in aerial spraying of drug crops.
Large parts of Caqueta are controlled by rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a 17,000-member guerrilla army known by its Spanish acronym "FARC." It is branded by Washington as a "terrorist" organization.
Crop dusters spraying coca-leaf -- the raw material for cocaine -- frequently come under rebel fire. Many crop dusters are U.S.-hired planes. In March 2002 a U.S. crop-dusting plane contracted by the Pentagon crashed in Caqueta after hitting a tree during a drug eradication mission. That pilot was not an American.
Colombia is torn by a four-decade guerrilla war pitting leftist rebels against right-wing paramilitary outlaws and the U.S.-backed military. The war, increasingly funded by the booming drug trade, claims the lives of thousand of people every year.