Anger as bodies returned
PHOTOS: REUTERS RIO NEGRO, Colombia Colombia began repatriating the victims of this week’s tragic air crash in the Andes yesterday as Bolivia’s president called for ‘‘drastic measures’’ against aviation officials who signed off on a flight plan that experts and even one of the charter airline’s executives said should never have been attempted due to concerns over a possible fuel shortage.
The move by Evo Morales came after evidence emerged that the pilot reported the plane was out of fuel minutes before it slammed into a muddy mountainside, killing all but six of the 77 people on board. Among the dead were players and coaches from a small-town Brazilian football team that was headed to the finals of one of South America’s most prestigious tournaments after a fairytale season.
As an honour guard played Taps, members of Colombia’s military loaded the bodies of five Bolivian crew members who died in the crash on to a cargo plane for the trip back home.
Later in the day, caskets containing the remains of 50 Brazilian victims, many draped with sheets printed with their team’s green and white logo, began the journey to the Chapecoense club’s home town in southern Brazil. The bodies of 14 Brazilian journalists who were travelling with the team and two passengers from other South American nations were being sent home on separate flights.
The sombre farewell come as details surfaced pointing to possible negligence and unsettling family ties between the Bolivianbased charter company, LaMia, and the country’s aviation agency, which approved the illfated flight even though it exceeded the short-haul jet’s maximum flying range.
Attention is focused on a for- mer Bolivian air force general, Gustavo Vargas, who is one of LaMia’s owners and whose son headed the office responsible for licensing aircraft in Bolivia’s civil aviation agency. The younger Vargas was suspended on Friday along with several other highranking aviation officials. The airline, whose only operable aircraft was the BAe 146 that crashed, was also grounded.
Morales said yesterday that the elder Vargas served as his pilot in 2006. But he said that he had no knowledge of the airline’s existence, and called for a ‘‘profound investigation’’ to explain whether Vargas’s son, also named Gustavo Vargas, favoured the airline, which has transported the national football teams of Argentina and Brazil, as well as many other top-flight South American clubs.
One of the suspended officials, Marcelo Chavez, the regional director of the agency that controls air traffic in Bolivia, said an agency inspector pointed out irregularities in the airlines’ flight plan, including the fact that the aircraft’s fuel capacity was barely enough to fly directly to Medellin. Chavez said the airline decided to go ahead with the flight anyway, and air traffic controllers had no authority to prevent them.
The airline’s operations director, Marco Rocha, said he also disapproved of the flight plan. ‘‘I wouldn’t have flown direct.’’
At LaMia’s main office in Santa Cruz, a secretary said the airline had yet to be notified of any sanctions. A black rose was left outside the door.
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, indicates that the plane ran out of fuel before crashing just a few kilometres from Medellin’s international airport.
In Brazil, grieving fans and relatives in the football team’s home town of Chapeco prepared for the sad return of so many whose lives were cut short by the crash, hanging origami figures of peace in the club’s colours from the fence of the local stadium, where a memorial service was to be held today.
Marissol Dias, who volunteers for the charity that organised the placing of the origami figures in the shape of a crane – considered to be a symbol of peace – said she was overwhelmed by the community’s response. More than 100,000 people – about half the city’s population – were expected at the stadium .
‘‘This comes from a Japanese legend that says if you make 1000 of these, a wish will be granted,’’ Dias said. ‘‘Our community did much more than we asked.’’
Elsewhere, gravediggers were preparing the ground for burial of some of the victims. At the Jardim do Eden cemetery, the caretaker, Dirceu Correa, said he was used to the business of death, but this felt different.
‘‘We bury two people every day. I’ve done this job for a long time, but this is different. It is a tragedy for the families, for the club, and also for us, because we are a part of the city.’’ AP