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.