Grief turns to anger, relatives prep to receive the dead

Rivals rule out final league game against Chapecoense

MEDELLIN, Colombia, Dec 2, (Agencies): Authorities prepared Thursday to transport home the bodies of dozens of victims of this week’s air tragedy in Colombia as grief turned to anger amid indications the airliner ran out of fuel before slamming into the Andes. Bolivian aviation officials announced they were indefinitely suspending the charter company that operated the flight.

Many of the victims were players and coaches from a small-town Brazilian soccer team that was headed to the finals of one of South America’s most prestigious tournaments after a fairy-tale season that had captivated their soccer-crazed nation.

On Thursday, row upon row of caskets, many covered with white sheets printed with the logo of the Chapcoense soccer team, filled a Medellin funeral home in preparation for being flown home, as family members of some victims gathered there to say their final goodbyes.

Grieving relatives of the dead spoke out in disbelief after a recording of conversations between a pilot of the doomed flight and air traffic controllers, as well as the account of a surviving flight attendant, indicated the plane ran out of fuel before crashing late Monday, killing all but six of the 77 people on board.

Osmar Machado, whose son, Filipe, a defender on the Chapecoense team, died on his father’s 66th birthday, questioned why the plane, which was flying at its maximum range on the flight from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the team.

Profit

“Profit brings greed,” Machado said, speaking in the Brazilian team’s hometown of Chapeco. “This plane ended (the lives of) 71 people.”

Williams Brasiliano, uncle of midfielder Arthur Maia, said the crash was avoidable if the team had chosen a commercial airline to travel to Colombia — not a charter.

“Look how complicated that flight was going to be even if it had arrived,” Brasiliano said tearfully of the team’s itinerary, which included a flight from Sao Paulo to Bolivia on a commercial airliner before the ill-fated flight to Medellin.

“Even if they had arrived, it is clear that they would be tired from the trip to play a final. This can’t be right. I doubt that a bigger club would have done the same,” he said.

Chapecoense spokesman Andrei Copetti defended the team’s decision, saying that more than 30 clubs had used the Boliviabased company, LaMia airlines, including Argentina and Bolivia, and that the team itself had flown on its flights before.

“They had a good service then. It was the airline that got in touch with us because they have experience in doing these long flights in Coffins of the Chapecoense team players are seen at the Mortoury San Vicente in Medellin, Colombia on Dec 1. Forensic authorities say they have managed to identify all victims of Monday’s crash and hope to finish their work on Thursday. Of those identified, 52 are Brazilian and 5 Bolivians as well as a single Venezuelan and Paraguayan

victim each. (AFP)

Marcelo Zolet, legal director of Brazil’s Chapecoense soccer club, carries the Copa Sudamericana trophy that was given to the Brazilian team by Colombia’s Independiente Santa Fe soccer team in Medellin, Colombia on Dec 1, in memory of the Brazilian players who died in a

plane crash. (AP)

South America,” he said.

Chapecoense’s opponents in the last game of the Brazilian league season said they would not play the match out of respect for the stricken club who lost most of their players in a plane crash, the president of Atletico Mineiro said on Thursday.

Valeria Zampier shows a T-shirt with a photo of her son, Brazil’s Chapecoense soccer player Neto, as her husband Helam Marinho Zampier, Sr looks on, at their home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Dec 1. Neto’s family feel it’s a miracle that their son survived the plane crash carrying his team to Colombia for a game. (AP)

Daniel Nepomuceno told Atletico Mineiro’s web site (www.atletico.com.br) that he had been in touch with the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), which had given its blessing. “Atletico will not play, will not let Chapecoense play the last game,” Nepomuceno said, three days after the southern Brazilian club lost all but three of their squad in the plane crash in Colombia.

“This is not the time to make these demands on players.”

The Belo Horizonte club are in fourth place in the Serie A table, six points clear of the fifth-placed side with one game remaining. They have already qualified for one of the six Copa Libertadores spots. Chapecoense are in ninth place. Brazil’s President Michel Temer will travel on Saturday morning to the stricken town of Chapec for a collective wake in the soccer stadium for the players and club members killed in the air disaster in Colombia, a spokesman said on Friday.

The Brazilian Air Force said three Hercules C-130 transport planes were ready to fly from Manaus to Medellin in Colombia to pick up the coffins that are scheduled to arrive in Chapec at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning for the wake and funeral services.

Funeral

FIFA President Gianni Infantino Friday postponed a trip to Australia so he can attend funeral services for the footballers killed in a plane crash in the Colombian mountains.

The global football chief had been due in Sydney on Monday after attending the under20 Women’s World Cup final in Papua New Guinea, but called it off.

“FIFA President Gianni Infantino has postponed his visit to Australia... so that he can attend funeral services in Brazil for those lost in this week’s Colombian plane crash,” FIFA said in statement.

For the family of Brazilian soccer player Neto, as one of only six survivors of a plane crash in Colombia is known, there is joy and pain. They feel it’s a miracle that their son, 31-year-old Helio Hermito Zampier, survived. But at the same time, they are struggling with loss because 71 passengers died, including 19 members of their son’s beloved team. The plane crashed on Monday night, a few miles (kilometers) from an airport in Medellin, Colombia.

“On one hand, we are very happy because our family member, Neto, is alive,” said Helam Marinho Zampier, Jr., Neto’s 34-yearold brother. “But at the same time, we are grieving because other lives were lost.”

“I can’t say that God saved my son,” said Neto’s father, Helam Marinho Zampier Sr., clearly searching for answers. “If that was the case, God would have saved everybody. I can say that God helped my son.”

Sitting in patio of their home on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro Thursday evening, several family members awaited more information from Neto’s wife, Simone, who had flown to Colombia. She and Neto live in Chapeco, the city in southern Brazil that is home to the team, with their 9-year-old twins.