Crash survivors undergo ops

DOCTORS treated traumatised survivors and an investigation was to get under way yesterday into an air crash that killed 71 people and wiped out Brazil’s Chapecoense soccer team en route to a cup final in Colombia.

Only six people – three players, a journalist and two crew members – survived the disaster on Monday night when Chapecoense’s charter plane hit a mountain en route to their Copa Sudamericana showdown in Medellin city.

All were being treated at local hospitals.

Of the players, goalkeeper Jackson Follmann was recovering from the amputation of his right leg, doctors said. Defender Helio Neto remained in intensive care with severe trauma to his skull, thorax and lungs.

Fellow defender Alan Ruschel had spine surgery.

Investigators from Brazil were flying in to join Colombian counterparts checking two black boxes from the crash site on a muddy hillside in wooded highlands near La Union town.

Soldiers guarded the wreckage overnight after rescuers left, and investigators were to start work at first light.

Bolivia, where the charter company Lamia was based, and the United Kingdom, also sent in experts to help the probe.

Prior to crashing, the BAe 146 had radioed it was having electrical problems, and weather conditions were poor – but there is no official word on the cause.

Locals are accustomed to planes flying overhead at all hours, but many were disturbed by the massive crash noise that interrupted their sleep and evening television.

By nightfall on Tuesday, rescuers had recovered most of the bodies which were to be repatriated to Brazil and to Bolivia, where all the plane’s nine-person crew were from.

Soccer-mad Brazil declared three days of mourning. — Reuters