MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) — A chartered plane carrying a Brazilian soccer team to the biggest match of its history crashed into a Colombian hillside and broke into pieces, killing 75 people and leaving six survivors, Colombian officials said Tuesday.
The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline with roots in Venezuela, declared an emergency and lost radar contact just before 10 p.m. Monday (0300 GMT Tuesday) because of an electrical failure, aviation authorities said.
The aircraft, which had departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was carrying the up and coming Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil for Wednesday’s first leg of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin – the continent’s second-most-important championship.
“What was supposed to be a celebration has turned into a tragedy,” Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez said from the search and rescue command center.
The club said in a brief statement on its Facebook page, “May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests traveling with our delegation.”
Expressions of grief poured in from all over the soccer world. South America’s federation canceled all scheduled matches in a show of solidarity, Real Madrid’s squad interrupted its training for a minute of silence and Argentina legend Diego Maradona sent his condolences to the victims’ families over Facebook.
Rescuers working through the night were initially heartened after pulling three passengers alive from the wreckage. But as the hours passed, heavy rainfall and low visibility grounded helicopters and slowed efforts to reach the crash site.
At daybreak, dozens of bodies were quickly collected into white bags while rescuers scavenged through pieces of the plane’s fuselage strewn across the muddy mountainside.
Images broadcast on local television showed three passengers arriving to a local hospital in ambulances on stretchers and covered in blankets connected to an IV. Among the survivors was Chapecoense defender Alan Ruschel, who doctors said suffered spinal injuries.
Two goalkeepers, Danilo and Jackson Follmann, as well as a journalist traveling with the team and a Bolivian flight attendant, were found alive in the wreckage. But Danilo was later reported as dead, and authorities said another defender, Helio Zampier, had survived amid a confusion of sometimes conflicting early reports.
The aircraft is owned by LaMia, a company with roots in Venezuela and that has a close relationship with several premier South American squads.
Argentina’s state-run news agency said the plane involved in the crash had transported Barcelona striker Lionel Messi and the national team this month from Brazil to Colombia between World Cup qualifier matches. The airliner also reportedly transported Venezuela’s national squad and several top teams from Bolivia in the past.
LaMia’s website, which is no longer online, said it operated three 146 Avro short-haul jets made by British Aerospace and with a maximum range of around 2,965 kilometers (1,600 nautical miles) – about the same as the distance between Santa Cruz and Medellin, the route it was flying when it went down.
Alfredo Bocanegra, the head of Colombia’s aviation authority, said initial reports suggest the aircraft was suffering electrical problems although investigators were also looking into an account from one of the survivors that the plane had run out of fuel about five minutes from its expected landing at Jose Maria Cordova airport outside Medellin.
Bolivia’s civil aviation agency said the aircraft picked up the Brazilian team in Santa Cruz, where players had arrived earlier in the day on a commercial flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Spokesman Cesar Torrico said that the plane underwent an inspection before departing for Colombia and reported no problems.
British Aerospace, which is now known as BAE Systems, says that the first 146-model plane took off in 1981 and that just under 400 were built in total in the U.K. through 2003. It says around 220 of are still in service in a variety of roles, including aerial firefighting and overnight freight services.
A video published on the team’s Facebook page showed the team readying for a flight earlier Monday in Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport. Photos of team members in the cockpit and posing in front of the plane ahead of departure quickly spread across social media.
The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy tale season. It joined Brazil’s first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals – the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament – after defeating two of Argentina’s fiercest squads, San Lorenzo and Independiente, as well as Colombia’s Junior.
“This morning I said goodbye to them and they told me they were going after the dream, turning that dream into reality,” Chapecoense board member told TV Globo. “The dream was over early this morning.”
The team is so modest that tournament organizers ruled that its 22,000-seat arena was too small to host the final match, which was moved to a stadium 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the north in the city of Curitiba.
“This is unbelievable, I am walking on the grass of the stadium and I feel like I am floating,” Andrei Copetti told the AP. “No one understands how a story that was so amazing could suffer such a devastating reversal. For many people here reality has still not struck.”
Chapecoense was gaining respect in Brazil before plane crash
The Brazilian soccer team aboard the plane that crashed in Colombia was gaining respect and support from across Brazil even though it was a small club with a short history.
Chapecoense, founded in 1973, was preparing to play in the Copa Sudamericana final, South America’s second biggest club competition after the Copa Libertadores. The team was flying to Medellin to face Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in the first leg of the final.
Members of the Chapecoense team were among the 81 people on board the chartered aircraft that crashed on its way to Medellin’s international airport. Colombian police said there were some survivors.
“This is a very, very sad day for football,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement. “At this difficult time our thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends. FIFA would like to extend its most heartfelt condolences to the fans of Chapecoense, the football community and media organizations concerned in Brazil.”
Chapecoense reached Brazil’s first division in 2014 and was in ninth place ahead of this weekend’s last round of games. On its way to the continental final, the team known as Chape beat major clubs such as Argentina’s San Lorenzo and Independiente.
Chape strikers Bruno Rangel and Kempes, both 34 years old, are among the top scorers in the Brazilian league, with 10 and nine goals, respectively. One of the team’s top players is 35-year-old midfielder Cleber Santana, who played for Atletico Madrid from 2007-10.
Part of the team’s recent rise is due to coach Caio Junior, who joined the club this year after coaching in the Middle East. Born Luiz Carlos Saroli, he coached numerous Brazilian teams, including Palmeiras, Flamengo and Botafogo.
Another team leader was defender Helio Hermito Zampier Neto – commonly known as Neto.
Among the passengers on the flight was Mario Sergio Pontes de Paiva, a former soccer player who worked as commentator for Fox Sports.
Known as Mario Sergio, he played briefly for Brazil’s national team in the early 1980s and had a long career as a midfielder and coach with many Brazilian clubs. He last coached Brazilian club Internacional in 2009 and Ceara in 2010.
In the wake of the crash, the Brazilian Football Confederation called off the Brazilian Cup final between Gremio and Atletico Mineiro, which set for Wednesday. A new date has not been set.
Chapecoense is based in Chapeco, a city of about 200,000 that is known for its poultry industry and is located about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) south of Rio de Janeiro.
The club, which doesn’t have any players in Brazil’s national team or in the under-20 team, plays its home matches at the 22,000-seat Arena Conda. But it had been scheduled to play the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana final at the Couto Pereira Stadium, a 40,000-seat venue in Curitiba, a city 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of Chapeco.
A group of rival fans, however, became so impressed with Chapecoense’s amazing run in the competition that they started a campaign on social media to move the final to the iconic Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
Chape had its best season ever in 2016, earning 52 points from 37 matches. On Sunday, the team lost at Palmeiras 1-0, a result which clinched the Brazilian league title for the host team.
The team was due to host fourth-place Atletico Mineiro at the Arena Conda on Sunday and then face Atletico Nacional in the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana final on Tuesday.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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