A politician is among 15 people killed after a domestic passenger plane plummeted from the sky and crashed in Colombia’s northeast on Wednesday (local time). Flight HK4709, operated by state-owned Satena Airlines, vanished from the radar just 12 minutes after taking off from the city of Cúcuta at 11.42am. Authorities confirmed the wreckage was discovered in a mountainous region near Cúrasica, in Playa de Belén, not far from the Venezuelan border. Among the victims were Congressman Diógenes Quintero, a member of Colombia’s House of Representatives, and congressional candidate Carlos Salcedo Salaza. Mr Quintero was a renowned human rights defender in the troubled border region with Venezuela, where he was from and where the accident occurred.