At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured after a military cargo plane carrying banknotes crashed while landing near Bolivia’s capital on Friday, damaging about a dozen vehicles on a highway and scattering banknotes on the ground, an official said.
Local media images showed people running to collect banknotes as police in riot gear tried to disperse them using tear gas. Authorities were later seen setting the money on fire in a bonfire at the crash site.
The Ministry of Defense said in a statement that “the money transported on the crashed plane has no official serial number… therefore, it has no legal or purchasing power.” He added that “its collection, possession or use constitutes a crime.”
The plane, a Hercules C-130 transport plane, skidded off the runway as it landed at El Alto international airport and turned down an avenue before stopping in a field, local media images showed.
It was not immediately known what caused the accident, but witnesses told Agence France-Presse that the weather had been treacherous.
Cristina Choque, a 60-year-old saleswoman whose car was hit by plane debris, described lightning and a severe hail storm the moment the plane landed. “The tire is the one that fell on us… my daughter is injured, she has a head injury,” he said.
Choque said she and her family remained inside their wrecked vehicle for fear of the crowd at the crash site.
The Ministry of Defense said it would launch an investigation into the accident.
Colonel René Tambo, head of the police homicide division in El Alto, told reporters that “there are about 20, maybe a few more” victims. Colonel Pavel Tovar of the National Fire Department had given an earlier figure of “between 15 and 16 people” killed in the disaster. “We are recovering the bodies of these people who unfortunately suffered the accident,” he said.
Bolivia’s Ministry of Health reported that at least 28 people were injured.
The plane, which belongs to the Bolivian Air Force, was transporting new banknotes from the Central Bank to other cities and a large quantity of banknotes scattered on the ground at the crash site.
The Bolivian Air Navigation and Airports Authority (NAABOL) reported in a statement that the C-130 departed from the eastern city of Santa Cruz and crashed while landing at the La Paz international airport, which suspended its operations.
Bolivian air force Gen. Sergio Lora said two of the plane’s six crew members had not been found as of Friday night.
With Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
