Jet Carrying 132 Crashes in Colombia
A Colombian jetliner flying from Panama with at least 132 people aboard crashed Wednesday in the mountains south of Medellin, civil aviation authorities said. There was no immediate word of casualties.
The SAM airline Boeing 727 vanished from radar screens 11 minutes before it was scheduled to land in Medellin, about 150 miles northwest of Bogota, the authorities said.
By nightfall, the plane had not been found and it was not known if there were survivors, the head of the Civil Aeronautics Agency said in a Caracol radio broadcast.
An air search was suspended until this morning.
Panama’s civil air authority, quoted by the RCN radio network, confirmed an account by Colombian officials that the plane was carrying 125 passengers and a crew of seven on a flight from Panama City to Medellin and Bogota. The network reported earlier that the plane was carrying 134 people.
The plane’s last radio report to the airport in Medellin said it was flying through a storm, authorities said.
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