Search efforts for a small plane that disappeared over a remote mountainous region of northwestern Colombia have been suspended due to torrential rain, according to local officials.
Nubia Carolina Córdoba-Curi, governor of the department of Chocó, said heavy downpours in rural areas near the town of Tadó have made it impossible to continue tracking the missing aircraft, a Cessna T206 registered as HK4985. The plane, flying from Condoto to Guaymaral, lost contact with air traffic controllers at 9:23 a.m. on Sunday, September 13, near Cerro Tatamá, a hard-to-reach peak located roughly 33 miles (about 53 kilometers) from a navigation beacon near the city of Pereira.
In a post on the social media platform X, Córdoba-Curi said the aerial search, led by Colombia’s Civil Aviation Authority, could resume Monday morning if conditions improve. She also thanked Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities living in the search area, along with local authorities, for their continued support in the ground effort.
Chocó is one of Colombia’s most biodiverse but least accessible regions, with dense rainforest and mountainous terrain that often complicates rescue operations, especially during the rainy season. Authorities have not yet released details on the number of people aboard the aircraft or their identities.
You can read the full original report, in Spanish, at El Tiempo.
Source: Gobernadora del Chocó informó que condiciones meteorológicas limitan búsqueda de aeronave perdida (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Ken Lund, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).