Colombian plane sighted on remote airstrip, passengers and crew gone

CNN April 12, 1999 Colombian plane sighted on remote airstrip, passengers and crew gone

                  BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- An Avianca twin-engine passenger plane was
                  apparently hijacked on a domestic Colombian flight Monday and forced to
                  land on a remote airstrip. Its passengers and crew were believed hustled
                  away by leftist rebels.

                  Pilots who flew over the landing strip in Simiti said they saw people dressed
                  in green escorting the 46 passengers and crew of the Fokker-50 turboprop
                  into wooden boats on the adjacent Magdalena River.

Police who later landed at the strip found the plane empty with no signs of a
violent struggle, said Ernesto Huertas, director of the civil aviation authority.

                  Simiti is 80 miles northwest of Bucaramanga, the provincial capital, which
                  the plane left at 10:32 a.m. en route to Bogota. The flight normally takes 65
                  minutes.

                  The air force commander, Gen. Fabio Velasco, said people in uniform were
                  seen surrounding the plane by a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot. It was
                  presumed they were leftist rebels, who have a strong presence in the area.

                  The pilot of a small commercial plane who flew over the plane said it had
                  landed on an airstrip that had in the past been dynamited by authorities,
                  likely because it was used by illegal drug flights.

                  The last communication with Flight 9463 occurred two minutes after takeoff
                  from Palonegro airport in Bucaramanga, officials said. The plane did not
                  report any problems and officials said weather conditions were excellent.