BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – A U.S. government plane carrying four Americans and a Colombian crashed yesterday in southern Colombia, and officials feared the survivors were captured by leftist rebels. Two bodies were spotted at the site, Colombian officials said.
Investigators with the state prosecutor’s office saw the two bodies amid the wreckage of the plane, said the government office, which is responsible in Colombia for investigating deaths. U.S. Embassy officials said they had no comment on the report.
U.S. officials scrambled rescue teams to the sweltering plains of the region after the crash, but at least one report said rebels had captured the survivors and announced, “We have them! We have them!” in an intercepted radio transmission.
There was no statement from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Colombia’s main leftist rebel group. A Colombian military official reported the transmission and said FARC rebels had apparently found the plane.
Earlier, the Colombian Armed Forces’ high command had said rescuers had found only the burned plane and no people. It was impossible to immediately reconcile the report with the statement from the state prosecutor’s office.