Colombia passenger plane missing with 15 aboard

BOGOTA, Colombia - An aircraft carrying 15 people, including one lawmaker, went missing near Colombia's troubled border with Venezuela on Wednesday, state airline Satena and aerospace authorities said.

The aircraft, carrying 13 passengers and two crew members, took off from the border city of Cucuta and lost contact with control towers shortly before it was due to land in nearby Ocana.

The area is mountainous with highly changeable weather and swaths are controlled by Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, better known by its Spanish acronym ELN.

"It was scheduled to land around 12:05 pm", the airline said in a statement. Security and search protocols have been activated, according to the air authority.

One lawmaker and one legislative candidate are feared to have been aboard.

"We have received with concern the information about the air accident... where my colleague Diogenes Quintero, Carlos Salcedo and their teams were traveling," local parliamentarian Wilmer Carrillo said.

Quintero is a member of Colombia's chamber of deputies and Salcedo is a candidate for the upcoming elections.

"We call for calm and await the official statement from the competent authorities," Carrillo said.

The aircraft is a Beechcraft 1900 twin-propeller plane, operated by private charter firm SEARCA. — Agence France-Presse