This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/world/americas/plane-carrying-brazilian-soccer-team-crashes-in-colombia.html

The article has changed 18 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Plane Carrying a Brazilian Soccer Team Crashes in Colombia Plane Carrying a Brazilian Soccer Team Crashes in Colombia
(about 1 hour later)
BOGOTA, Colombia — A chartered aircraft with 81 people on board, including a Brazilian soccer team heading to Colombia for a regional tournament final, has crashed on its way to Medellin’s international airport. A chartered plane with 81 people aboard, including members of a Brazilian soccer club, crashed on the outskirts of Medellín, Colombia, the authorities said early Tuesday.
Aviation authorities said there are reports of at least six survivors. Colombia’s civil aviation agency said the flight was operated by a small airline, LaMia, and carried the soccer club Chapecoense de Brasil. The team was traveling from Bolivia to play in the Copa Sudamericana tournament final when the plane crashed about 10 p.m. on Monday.
“It’s a tragedy of huge proportions,” Mayor Federico Gutierrez of Medillin told Blu Radio. The aircraft carried 72 passengers and nine crew members, and there were as many as six survivors, according to a statement issued by the Medellín airport. The search was being hampered by low visibility and the rescue crews’ difficulty in reaching the site.
Aviation authorities said the aircraft, a British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane operated by a Bolivian charter airline named Lamia, declared an emergency at 10 p.m. Monday after experiencing an electrical failure. Colombian news reports said at least one of the survivors was from the soccer team and had been taken to a hospital, where he was conscious and able to speak.
The aircraft, which made a stop in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the first division Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil. The team was scheduled to play Wednesday in the first of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin. The authorities said the plane had reported electrical problems as it flew near the towns of La Ceja and La Unión in the mountainous stretches around Medellín.
The plane was carrying 72 passengers and nine crew members, aviation authorities said in a statement. Local radio said the same aircraft carried Argentina’s national squad for a match earlier this month in Brazil. The South American Football Confederation said it had suspended the Copa Sudamericana, and the group’s president was headed to Medellín.
A video published on the team’s Facebook page showed the team readying for the flight earlier Monday in São Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport. Colombia’s Blu Radio, citing an interview it conducted with Alfredo Bocanegra, Colombia’s civil aviation director, said the plane had declared an emergency as it approached Medellín. The plane was given priority to land before air traffic controllers lost contact with it.
The team, from the small city of Chapeco, joined Brazil’s first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it to the Copa Sudamericana finals last week by defeating Argentina’s legendary San Lorenzo squad. Medellín’s mayor, Federico Gutiérrez, told Blu Radio that “emergency support, with firefighters, ambulances and the hospital network” had been activated.
Members of Chapecoense, a soccer club from the southern Brazilian city of Chapecó, were flying to Colombia for the first match of a two-leg final in the Copa Sudamericana, a second-tier championship for South American clubs.
That match, against Colombia’s Atlético Nacional, was scheduled for Wednesday in Medellín. Chapecoense beat San Lorenzo — the Argentine club that counts Pope Francis as a member — in the semifinals, and clubs like Colombia’s Atlético Junior and Argentina’s Independiente along the way.
The club, founded in 1973, had in recent years clawed its way to what is effectively the top tier, and its play in Copa Sudamericana this tournament had been its high-water mark.