Plane Carrying Colombian Minister Missing

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 07, 2003

Plane Carrying Colombian Minister Missing

A small plane carrying Minister of Social Welfare Juan Luis Londono disappeared Thursday afternoon in central Colombia.

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A small plane carrying Minister of Social Welfare Juan Luis Londono disappeared Thursday afternoon in central Colombia.

The two-engine plane with Londono and his two advisers and a bodyguard aboard took off from an airport in Flandes at 15:23 local time (2023 GMT) and was bound for the central city of Popayan, 400 km southwest of Bogota.

Control towers lost contact with the plane at 15:37 local time (2037 GMT) when it was crossing an Andean mountain range, said the

spokesman of Colombia's Civil Aviation Agency.

Rescue teams equipped with helicopters searched for the plane in the region over the night but has not located the missing aircraft, said the spokesman.

Londono, 46, who is close to President Alvaro Uribe, is in charge of the Social Welfare Ministry, which was created out of Labor and Health Ministries on Wednesday.

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