The wreckage of the helicopter was found the following day in mountainous terrain in the department of Caldas, 180 km north-west of the capital city Bogotá.

It was the third helicopter crash in Colombia in 2016, and with seventeen killed was the worst accident in eleven years for the Colombian military.

On 26 June, the Colombian air force took part in an offensive against the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerilla group in the department of Chocó, in the west of the country.

Following the operation, the helicopter with registration number EJC-3393, took off at 2 p.m. local time from Quibdó, the capital city of the Chocó department, bound for the Tolemaida Air Base in the department of Tolima Its final report was made from a position 35 miles north of the town of Mariquita before disappearing.

The head of the Colombian army, General Alberto José Mejía Ferrero, said that the helicopter had hit the mountain almost head-on and blamed poor visibility.