Bolivia shuts down airline after football team crash in Colombia
MEDELLÍN,COLOMBIA: The authorities on Thursday shut down a Bolivian charter airline whose plane ran out of fuel and crashed in the Colombian mountains, killing 71 people including most of a Brazilian football team.
As grieving relatives identified their loved ones and the first body was sent home, a harrowing recording emerged of the pilot’s final minutes seeking to land the plane without fuel.
Bolivia said it had suspended the charter company LAMIA’s permit and ordered an investigation into its operations.
It also suspended the executive staff of the civil aviation authority and the airports administrator for the duration of the probe. Investigators are examining pilot error and air traffic control problems as possible factors in Monday night’s crash. The disaster killed most of the Brazilian football club Chapecoense Real and 20 journalists traveling with them to a major regional championship match.
LAMIA, which specializes in flying Latin American football teams, has ferried local clubs and national sides around the region, with players including superstar Lionel Messi.
Investigators are trying to piece together the last moments of the doomed flight, which slammed into the mountains outside Medellin with 77 people on board -- six of whom miraculously survived. AFP