Nations mourn crash victims

Simultaneous tear-filled tributes were held at packed stadiums in Colombia and Brazil for the victims of this week’s air tragedy that claimed 71 lives when a chartered plane crashed while ferrying a scrappy, smalltown soccer team to the finals of a prestigious South American tournament.

The tributes took place Wednesday night as crash investigators aided by dramatic cockpit recordings were studying why the Britishbuilt jet apparently ran out of fuel before slamming into a muddy mountainside just a few miles from the international airport in Medellin, Colombia.

In the sometimes chaotic exchange with the air traffic tower, the pilot jet requested permission to land because of “fuel problems” without making a formal distress call. A controller explained another plane that had been diverted with mechanical problems was already approaching the runway and had priority, instructing the pilot to wait seven minutes.

As the jetliner circled in a holding pattern, the pilot grew more desperate. “Complete electrical failure, without fuel,” he said in the tense final moments before the plane set off on a four-minute death spiral.