{"id":794337,"date":"2026-02-28T08:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/794337\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T08:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:19:14","slug":"bolivian-military-plane-carrying-banknotes-crashes-near-capital-killing-20-aviation-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/794337\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolivian military plane carrying banknotes crashes near capital, killing 20 | Aviation News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Air force plane transporting cash veers off runway and into busy road; crowds scramble for scattered banknotes in the wreckage.<\/p>\n

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Published On 28 Feb 202628 Feb 2026<\/p>\n

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At least 20 people have been killed and more than 30 injured after a Bolivian Air Force Hercules transport plane, carrying a cargo of newly printed banknotes, crashed onto a busy highway while attempting to land in bad weather near the capital, La Paz.<\/p>\n

The military plane was attempting to land on Friday evening at El Alto International Airport when it skidded off the runway and ploughed into a nearby road, local authorities said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are about 20, maybe a few more,\u201d Police Colonel Rene Tambo, head of the police homicide division in El Alto, said of the number of people killed.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 \u201clanded and veered off the runway\u201d and came to a stop in a field.<\/p>\n

Firefighters responding to the crash successfully extinguished a fire that broke out, the minister said, noting that the cause of the crash remains under investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cA heavy hailstorm\u201d was falling and \u201cthere was lightning\u201d when the plane went down, Cristina Choque, a 60-year-old vendor whose car was struck by plane wreckage, told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

Footage shared on social media showed chaotic scenes as crowds gathered at the crash site.<\/p>\n

Some people appeared to collect banknotes scattered among debris from the aircraft, the wrecked vehicles and the bodies of victims.<\/p>\n

Authorities used water hoses and tear gas to push back onlookers and looters.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Defence, in a statement, said later that \u201cthe money transported in the crashed aircraft has no official serial number\u2026 therefore it has no legal or purchasing power\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ministry also warned that the \u201ccollection, possession, or use\u201d of the money \u201cconstitutes a crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bolivian Air Force General Sergio Lora said that two of the six crew members of the aircraft were still unaccounted for.<\/p>\n

The central bank was expected to brief reporters later on Friday regarding the stricken plane\u2019s cargo.<\/p>\n

Bolivia\u2019s La Paz, situated at an altitude of 3,650 metres (11,975 feet) and surrounded by Andean mountain peaks, is the highest administrative capital in the world.<\/p>\n

\"AA military police officer stands next to a plane that crashed in El Alto, Bolivia, on Friday [Juan Karita\/AP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Air force plane transporting cash veers off runway and into busy road; crowds scramble for scattered banknotes in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[1306,331,36058,748,393,4884,25781,3274,2597,12,1144,529,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-794337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-aviation","tag-banks","tag-bolivia","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-investigation","tag-latin-america","tag-military","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-police","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116147281499626152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}