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Eight people killed in Medellín air crash

Various houses were burned down but no casualties were reported among local residents

Eight people were reported dead after a light aircraft crashed in a residential area after declaring an emergency following takeoff at Medellín's Olaya Herrera Airport, the same air terminal where famous tango singer Carlos Gardel and his band were killed in an airplane crash on June 24, 1935.

At 10.13 am local time, Aeropaca's Flight AP5524, operated by Grupo San Germán, took off bound for Pizarro, in Bajo Baudó, a small town on the Pacific shore in thedepartment of Chocó. The twin-engined Piper 31-350 aircraft, registration HK 5121, owned by Wings Trade Support S.A.S. declared an emergency, one minute after takeoff.

Ahí se ven calcinados en el avión que acabó de caer en Medellín pic.twitter.com/L2L3xwmz5E

— Oikos (@OikoSoy) November 21, 2022

The crash also resulted in several houses in the Belén Rosales area burning down but no casualties were reported among the residents.

The mayor's office of Medellín said on Twitter that the plane reported an engine failure on take-off and did not make it back to the airport.

After the accident, 12 flights, between departures and arrivals, were rescheduled.

El avión que cayó en Belén Rosales, Medellín. Otra tragedia en Colombia pic.twitter.com/z64jYkW4Ij

— Ricardo Puentes M. (@ricardopuentesm) November 22, 2022

The department of Chocó, where the aircraft was headed, is a jungle area on the Pacific coast that is difficult to access by road.

With almost 3 million inhabitants, Medellín is the second most visited city by tourists in Colombia, behind Bogotá and ahead of the Caribbean city of Cartagena.

After the opening of the newer, larger José María Córdova airport in 1985, Olaya Herrera is no longer Medellín's main air terminal. It remains operational but the aircraft operating there are limited by size.