Airplane Crash Claims Lives of Brazilian Soccer Team
Joe Cortez November 29, 2016
Over 70 people killed, including the majority of a regional soccer team, when aircraft crashes in Colombia.
Soccer fans across Brazil are in mourning after an aircraft carrying members of the Brazilian Série A soccer team Chapecoense crashed on their way to their biggest match in history. NBC News reports the charter flight, LaMia Flight 2933, crashed late Monday night, Nov. 29, in a mountainous region of Colombia. A total of 75 people were killed when the aircraft came down.
The team was flying from their home near São Paulo, Brazil, to Colombia to play in the first half of the Copa Sudamericana final, a game the team was not expected to make. The Guardian reports of those aboard their aircraft, three members of the Chapecoense team, two crewmembers and a journalist are thought to have survived the crash, though reports are suggesting an initial survivor may have died later in the hospital.
According to a statement from Rionegro José María Córdova International Airport (MDE), the destination airport of the flight, the pilots of the flight declared an emergency prior to arrival due to electrical issues. To compound the situation, reports of bad weather, including rain and fog, may have made it difficult for pilots to recover. FlightRadar24.com reports the aircraft completed three circles in the air only 30 kilometers away from the airport.
In response to the accident, the president of Brazil has declared three days of mourning for the soccer team. Furthermore, fans of both teams gathered at the soccer stadium where the game would have been played to mourn the loss of the players.
“I express my solidarity at this sad time when dozens of Brazilian families have been affected by tragedy,” Brazilian President Michel Temer said in a statement, as translated by The Guardian. “The government will do everything possible to relieve the pain of these friends and families of Brazilian sport and journalism.”
Team chairman Plinio David de Nes Filho summed up the situation by simply saying: “The dream is over.”
“Yesterday morning I was saying goodbye to them, they told me they were going in search of the dream, to make this dream a reality,” Filho told a Brazilian TV station, according to CNN. “And we, very excitedly, shared this dream with them. But the dream was over this morning.”
[Photo: AP Photo/Luis Benavides]
thank you coolcoil.
For those who are wondering why it was circling, another plane had declared an emergency due to a fuel leak and had been given priority. If you look at one of the radar sites that shows all planes in the air, you will see a couple of planes circling. According to the news here in Colombia, there is strong evidence pointing to fuel exhaustion. Apparently, the plane was at the absolute limit of its range, there was no evidence of fire or smell of fuel at the crash site and the crew member that survived said the plane ran out of fuel. These are all early reports of course, so take it all with a grain of salt. I live 2.5 miles from the crash site, though I did not hear anything and only learned of it from the news. It's been a very sad day here - I spent a good part of the day watching helicopters fly to and from the site taking the bodies to the city. I pray for strength and healing for all of the friends and family of the victims.
It was an Avro RJ85 aircraft, per the FlightRadar24.com link.