They are used for taking-off/landing from very bad terrain, like a gravel runway carved in mountainous forests, glaciers and other similar sketchy places where

They are used for taking-off/landing from very bad terrain, like a gravel runway carved in mountainous forests, glaciers and other similar sketchy places where it's quite easy to fuck up. The majority of the crashes happened because of a botched take-off/landing and surprisingly caused only a few deaths. Also, half of the crashes seem to be attributable to the columbian air force or columbian police: In one instance several hand grenades where detonated accidentally inside the plane. So all in all it doesn't seem like this plane had many accidents because it's dangerous, but because it's used to do dangerous things.