Date:	Tuesday 25 March 2003
Time:	19:20
Type:	Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
Owner/operator:	One Leasing
Registration:	N5512B
MSN:	208B0299
Year of manufacture:	1992
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114A
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	near El Paujil -   Colombia
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Survey
Departure airport:	Larandia Air Base
Destination airport:	Larandia Air Base
Investigating agency:	Aerocivil
Confidence Rating:	Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities

Narrative:
The Caravan plane N5512B was the second plane used on classified counter-drug intelligence missions on behalf of the U.S. military. The other Caravan N1116G had crashed near Florencia on February 13. Three crew members were taken hostage by FARC rebels in the area. N5512 departed Bogota and landed at the Larandia Air Base where it refueled. At 19:06 the airplane departed Larandia for a reconnaissance flight to find three Americans who where taken hostage. It banked slightly west after takeoff, then turned northeast towards a mountainous area. Nine minutes after takeoff, 13 miles from the runway, the Cessna contacted a large tree on a ridgeline at an altitude of about 4500 feet. The airplane yawed violently, rolled into a near vertical dive and impacted the bottom of a brush-covered gully 1500 feet below the ridge where the aircraft disintegrated on impact and caught fire.

Avioneta de EE.UU. cae en Colombia (BBC Mundo, 26-3-2003)
Flying blind, by John McQuaid (The Times-Picayune 10-11-2003)
Aeronautica Civil, Informe Preliminar 200309

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