Relatives of plane crash soccer team victims weep
CHAPECO: A downpour drenched thousands of mourners in this Brazilian city on Saturday as they grieved over 50 caskets flown to the stadium of the local Chapecoense soccer team all but wiped out in an air crash on Monday in Colombia.
An arena filled with banners and team faithful donning green and white colours served as an open-air wake for locals. Just a week ago, they were braced to celebrate the plucky squad, which had ascended from minor leagues in recent years to reach the final of a major South American tournament.
Instead, they looked on as Air Force troops, after unloading the bodies from cargo aircraft, ferried the caskets to makeshift tents erected on the team’s soggy home turf, where victims’ families sat in sorrow.
Brazil’s president Michel Temer, who flew in from Brasilia at dawn to receive the caskets at a Chapeco airfield, bestowed posthumous honours on the dead athletes.
“This event, as you know, shook the whole country,” Temer told reporters before making the drive to the stadium, where he remained silent for the rest of the emotional tribute. “This rain must be Saint Peter crying.”
Last Monday’s disaster, which killed 71 passengers and crew, shocked soccer fans the world over and plunged Brazil into mourning. A BAe146 regional airliner operated by Bolivian charter company LAMIA had radioed that it was running out of fuel before smashing into a hillside outside Medellin, Colombia.
Only six people survived, including just three members of the club, en route to the Copa Sudamericana final, the biggest game in its history. Earlier on Saturday, the bodies of eight journalists who also died in the crash arrived in Rio de Janeiro.
Victims’ families in recent days have been outraged by reports that the plane, which circled for 16 minutes while another aircraft emergency landed, had barely enough fuel for the flight.
Bolivian President Evo Morales has pledged to take “drastic measures” to determine the cause. Bolivia has suspended LAMIA’s operating licence and replaced the national aviation authority’s management.
In Chapeco, a small agricultural city, dozens of fans kept vigil overnight at the stadium, where an impromptu shrine swelled with fresh flowers and handmade posters. By Saturday afternoon, thousands more had gathered, cheering and applauding as the caskets arrived.