COLUMBIA: Three US nationals died when the US government aircraft they were using to search for three kidnapped Americans crashed in southern Colombia, an official said yesterday.
"There were no survivors," said a local government official who asked not to be identified.
The Cessna aircraft crashed against a mountain and burst into flames in the El Paujil area, 700 km south of Bogota, at around 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the official said.
Colombian troops sought to retrieve the bodies, but bad weather complicated rescue operations, already risky because of the presence of insurgents of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the region.
The three Americans were searching for three US nationals kidnapped by leftist guerrillas when their plane went down in the same area on February 13th.
An American and a Colombian on board that flight were shot dead when FARC rebels reached the wreckage and took off into the jungle with the three survivors.
The FARC has said it included the three on a list of hostages it would exchange for some of its imprisoned members.