BOGOTA, Colombia -- A U.S. Army reconnaissance plane on an anti-drug mission in Colombia was missing Friday with five American soldiers and two Colombians aboard, the U.S. military said.
The four-engine, Dehaviland RC-7 was missing most of Friday. It took off at 1:30 a.m. and was expected to return 7 1/2 hours later, said U.S. army Capt. Chris Yates, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami.The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that contact had been lost with the plane during its early-morning flight.
When the plane carrying two U.S. officers and three U.S. enlisted men did not return, Yates said, Colombian authorities began a search and rescue mission involving U.S. State Department helicopters.
The Colombians on board were air force officers, said armed forces chief of staff Gen. Rafael Hernandez.
Yates said the plane took off from a Colombian military base near Apiay, 45 miles southeast of Bogota in a mountainous region of the state of Meta.
He said there were "adverse weather conditions" including low-cloud cover early this morning. Rescuers were searching near Colombia's southwestern border with Ecuador -- an area where leftists rebels have a strong presence.
"It was a routine counter-drug mission gathering information to support the Colombians in the counter-drug effort," Yates said. He said the plane was not on a mission to fumigate illicit drug crops -- the United States' principal anti-narcotics activity in Colombia.
A spokesman at U.S. Army headquarters in Washington said RC-7's are equipped with "sophisticated electronic systems used in military command and intelligence work."