Beloved Colombian “música popular” singer Yeison Jiménez was killed along with five others in a fiery small-plane crash Saturday, authorities and his band have confirmed.
He was 34.
All six aboard were killed, including the pilot, Captain Hernando Torres, and passengers Juan Manuel Rodríguez, Óscar Marín, Jefferson Osorio, and Weisman Mora, authorities and the singer’s team said.
The private plane with registration number N325FA crashed in the Paipa and Duitama area of the department of Boyacá in central-eastern Colombia, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. Voices could be heard shouting, “It’s run out of runway,” during takeoff, according to videos broadcast by Colombian media. Afterward the plane could be seen on the runway, consumed in flame.
Luis LIZARAZO / AFP via Getty Images
Investigators and firefighters work at the scene of a plane crash which left six people dead, including singer Yeison Jimenez, in Paipa municipality, Boyaca department, Colombia on Saturday. (Photo by Luis LIZARAZO / AFP via Getty Images)
“The Director of Aerocivil, Luis Chimenty, and the Technical Director of Investigation, Álvaro Bello, are at the site in Paipa, Boyacá,” the authority said in a statement posted to X. “Investigations are underway into the causes of the aircraft accident that left six occupants deceased, including the artist Yeison Jiménez.”
Jiménez’s official Instagram account also confirmed the news “with heavy hearts and indescribable grief” in a Spanish-language statement that identified the other fatalities as members of his team and mourned the loss of an artist who inspired legions of listeners.
“Today, we not only say goodbye to an artist,” the statement said. “We say goodbye to a son, a brother, a friend, a human being full of dreams and courage, who transformed his story into a source of hope for thousands.”
Jiménez was one of the biggest names in the genre known as música popular, a blend of traditional Mexican ranchera music with Colombian sounds born in the country’s coffee-growing region, which includes Jiménez’s birthplace of Calda, Billboard reported.
EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images
Colombian singer Yeison Jimenez is pictured at a Univision event in Miami in 2022. (Photo by EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2021, his song “Tu Amante” hit number 16 on the Regional Mexican Airplay ranking. The song also ranked number 48 on the all-genre Latin Airplay chart, a historic first for both Jiménez and Colombian popular music, which had never seen an artist land on the list, Billboard reported. In 2024, Jiménez drew more than 40,000 fans to three sold-out shows in the Movistar Arena in Bogotá, another career milestone.
In addition to legions of fans, Jiménez leaves behind a wife and three small children.
With News Wire Services
