Jetliner Crashes Near Bogota, Killing 107

BOGOTA, Colombia--A Colombian jetliner crashed on the outskirts of Bogota shortly after takeoff yesterday, and all 107 people aboard were killed. A caller to a radio station claimed drug traffickers bombed the jet.

Witnesses said the Avianca Airlines Boeing 727-100 exploded before it plunged into a hilly area south of the capital, about a mile from a neighborhood of slum houses and factories. Pieces of the jet were found up to six miles from the main point of impact, police said.

Hours later, a man called Radio Caracol and claimed that a group called The Extraditables blew up the jet to kill five police informants. He said the five gave police information that led to the discovery of the Medellin drug cartel leader's hideout.

The caller did not identify himself, and the claim could not be immediately authenticated.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Bogota said one U.S. citizen, Andres Escabi, was known to have been killed in the crash. He said Escabi, a native of Puerto Rico, also held Colombian citizenship and lived in Bogota.

Radio Caracol said the flight recorder was found and civil aeronautics specialists were analyzing its data.

Cynthia Price Ossa, wife of the flight's pilot, Jose Ossa, is from Baton Rouge, La., and lives in Bogota with the couple's four children.

"The plane was flying along when suddenly it exploded, broke in two and fell in flames and smoke," said a witness, Alfonso Moreno, in an interview with Radio Caracol.

"I heard explosions and I thought there was some problem with transformers in the electrical station, but I looked up and saw a plane explode in the air, and bodies and pieces of luggage were falling," another witness, Mario Vasquez, said.

Two Colombian air force pilots in another plane reported seeing two explosions on the jet, said the director of Colombia's Civil Aviation Authority, Col. Jorge Gonzalez.

The airline refused comment on the reports of explosions. Avianca spokesperson Patricia Duarte said the plane carried 101 passengers and a crew of six, and that all were killed. Their nationalities were not immediately known.

No one on the ground was hurt, spokespeople for Colombia's Civil Defense teams said in radio interviews.

Investigators had found no evidence of a bomb, said Col. Edgar Leal, chief of national police for the state.

Flight 203 was bound for Cali, about 190 miles southwest of Bogota. Cali is the headquarters of one of Colombia's biggest cocaine cartels and has been the site of frequent bombings and other attacks since the government declared was on drug lords in August.

The plane took off from Bogota's El Dorado International Airport at 7:15 a.m., and Ossa told the tower at 7:18 a.m. that everything was normal, Duarte told The Associated Press. It crashed shortly afterward.

One witness said he saw black smoke pouring from one of the plane's three engines, and the plane then blew up.

Most of the wreckage was in an area about 200 feet by 50 feet. The biggest piece appeared to be about 50 feet long.

Leal said one piece of the jet was found six miles away. The RCN radio network said a body was found a half-mile from the main crash site. Several looters were caught removing. rings and gold chains from the corpses, policesaid.

The Extraditables is a shadowy group linked tothe notorious Medellin drug cartel. The grouptakes its name from the U.S. Justice Department'slist of 12 Colombian drug suspects most wanted inthe United States. The head of the Medellincartel, Pablo Escobar, tops the list.

Last week, authorities raided a jungle hideout,and Escobar reportedly came close to capture.

The Seattle-based Boeing Co. said it wassending a team of investigators to Colombia tohelp determine the cause of the crash