A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said.
Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field.
Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft.
Photo: AFP
Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but did not clarify if the dead were in the plane or in the cars on the nearby highway.
Salinas did not specify how many people had been killed in the crash and said the cause was being investigated.
Bolivian Air Force General Sergio Lora said two of the plane’s six crew members had not been found as of late Friday, adding that the aircraft was arriving from Santa Cruz.
Images on social media showed debris from the aircraft, destroyed cars and bodies scattered on the road.
Tovar said at least 15 vehicles were damaged.
The plane, which belonged to the Bolivian air force, was transporting money to La Paz. Images on social media showed people rushing to collect the bills scattered at the crash site, while police in riot gear tried to disperse them.
The hundreds of people trying to collect the spilled bills were hindering rescue efforts, Tovar said.
More than 500 soldiers and 100 police officers took control of the area to disperse the mob, official reports said.
Police and military personnel burned the cash boxes in the presence of Bolivian Central Bank President David Espinoza, who said the bills “have no legal value, because they never entered circulation.”
Espinoza did not specify the amount of money being transported, but said the banknotes had arrived in Santa Cruz from abroad.
Authorities temporarily suspended all flights to and from the terminal.
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