At least seven people were killed after a small aircraft crashed in a residential area in the Southwest Colombian town of Popayan, authorities confirm. According to preliminary reports, the plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Guillermo Leon Valencia airport of Popayan, the capital of the Cauca province.  

7 lives lost, 2 survive

Only two people have survived the crash. Five people, including a 10-year-old boy, were injured as the plane crashed into their houses in the Junin neighborhood in the southwest of the city. According to the recent report submitted by the Popayan fire department, two of the injured are in critical condition. The child is apparently in a stable condition. However, the reports confirm that no one is missing. 

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It was only a few minutes after taking off while the plane was on its way to the Lopez de Micay, a rural municipality in the Pacific region of Cauca, when it crashed killing seven people. The country’s civil aviation authority almost immediately began investigating the causes of the fatal crash on September 16. 

The aircraft belonged to an airline called Transpacifico, a twin-engine Piper PA-31-350 carrying nine passengers, crashed at 2 pm local time (1900 GMT) after suffering from mechanical failures. All the injured passengers were soon taken to a nearby hospital, Popayan Mayor Cesar Gomez said. 

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The Ethiopian Airlines plane crash

The Ethiopian Airlines plane crash in March this year killed all 157 people on board. The New York Times report cited “a person who reviewed air traffic communications” from the flight as saying controllers noticed the plane was moving up and down by hundreds of feet.  

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Forensic DNA work began in identifying remains, and Muslim families held prayers for the dead, anxious to have something to bury as soon as possible. The dead came from 35 countries. The aircraft disappeared from radar screens and crashed at almost 08:44, six minutes after takeoff. 

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