8 dead in Colombian city of Medellin after plane crashed in residential area

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - A small plane carrying eight people crashed in the Belen Rosales neighborhood, west of Medellin, Colombian authorities said Monday.

The people who were on the aircraft, 2 crew members and 6 passengers, were reported dead, according to the mayor of Medellin, Daniel Quintero.

“The flight impacted at around 10:15 a.m in Belen Rosales, a neighborhood located very close to the airport,” Quintero, who arrived on the site of the crash minutes after the explosion took place, told reporters.

The Olaya Herrera Airport, from where the plane took off, reported on Twitter that the aircraft PA31 was traveling from Medellin to Pizarro in El Choco, on a route that lasted approximately 25 minutes.

“There are 7 homes heavily affected and there is damage to 6 buildings,” Quintero said. “Fortunately, at that particular moment, there was no one in the house that was hit the hardest.”

​”Doña Astrid was saved because she had just left,” said the mayor about one of the inhabitants of the house where the plane crashed. Images show how a house was completely destroyed after the plane fell on it.

Minutes after takeoff, the plane reported an engine failure and did not make it back to the airport, Quintero said.

Firefighters and authorities are on the scene attending to the emergency.

The mayor said that two of those on the plane were friends of him.