Soccer tragedy
Brazilian regional team in plane crash that kills 75
A chartered plane with a Brazilian first division soccer team crashed near Medellin while on its way to the finals of a regional tournament, killing 75 people on Tuesday. Six people survived, including three players from Brazil’s Chapecoense soccer team.
The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline named LaMia, declared an emergency at 10 pm on Monday because of an electrical failure, authorities said.
The aircraft, which had departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the soccer team to Medellin’s Jose Maria Cordova airport.
The team, from southern Brazil and which had started its journey in Sao Paulo, was scheduled to play on Wednesday in the first of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin.
“What was supposed to be a celebration has turned into a tragedy,” Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez said from the search and rescue command center.
Brazil as well as South America’s soccer federation extended its condolences to the entire Chapecoense community and said its president, Luis Dominguez, was on his way to Medellin. All soccer activities were suspended until further notice, the organization said in a statement.
Authorities and rescuers were immediately activated but an air force helicopter had to turn back because of low visibility. Heavy rainfall complicated the nighttime search, and authorities urged journalists to stay off the roads so ambulances and other rescuers could reach the site.
Images broadcast on local television showed three passengers arriving at a hospital in ambulances on stretchers and covered in blankets. Among the survivors were Chapecoense defender Alan Ruschel, who doctors said suffered spinal injuries, goalkeeper Jackson Follmann and player Helio Hermito Zampier Neto.
Other survivors included two air crew members and a journalist accompanying the team, according to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.
Another goalkeeper, Danilo, who had initially been rescued alive was confirmed dead at the hospital.
Fairy tale season
The plane was carrying 72 passengers and nine crew members, aviation authorities said. Local radio said the same aircraft transported Argentina’s national squad for a match earlier this month in Brazil, and previously had transported Venezuela’s national team.
British Aerospace said that the first 146-model plane took off in 1981 and that just under 400 — including the successor Avro RJ — were built in total in the United Kingdom through 2003. It said around 220 of are still in service.
A video published on the team’s Facebook page showed the team readying for the flight on Monday in Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport.
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.