Seventy-six
people died when a chartered plane carrying members of a Brazilian
soccer club crashed on the outskirts of Medellín, Colombia, the authorities said early Tuesday.
Five
of the 81 people onboard survived, according to Brig. Gen. José Gerardo
Acevedo, the police commander for the area surrounding Medellín, news
agencies reported.
Colombia’s
civil aviation agency said the flight was operated by a small airline,
LaMia, and was carrying members of the Chapecoense de Brasil soccer
club.
The
team was traveling from Bolivia to play in the final of the Copa
Sudamericana tournament when the plane crashed around 10 p.m. on Monday.
The
aircraft was carrying 72 passengers and nine crew members, according to
a statement issued by the Medellín airport. Search and rescue efforts
were hampered by low visibility and difficulty in reaching the site.
The
authorities said the plane had reported electrical problems as it flew
near the towns of La Ceja and La Unión, in mountainous stretches around
Medellín.
The
South American Football Confederation said it had suspended the Copa
Sudamericana, and the group’s president is heading to Medellín.
The
Colombian station 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.
Federico
Gutiérrez, the mayor of Medellín, told Blu Radio that “emergency
support, with firefighters, ambulances and the hospital network,” had
been activated.
The civilian aviation authority said in a post on Facebook
that six people had been rescued — three players, two crew members and a
journalist who was accompanying the team. One of the survivors
subsequently died, General Acevedo said, but it was not clear who.
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 the Colombian team Atlético Nacional, was scheduled for
Wednesday in Medellín. Chapecoense beat San Lorenzo — the Argentine club
that counts Pope Francis as a fan — in the semifinals, and clubs like
Atlético Junior of Colombia and Independiente of Argentina along the
way.
As
Brazilians awoke on Tuesday to reports about the crash, they expressed
anguish. “Before boarding, they said they were seeking to turn their
dream into reality,” Plínio David de Nes Filho, chairman of the board
overseeing the Chapecoense club, told reporters. “This morning, that
dream is over.”
The
mayor of Chapecó, the city of 210,000 in southern Brazil where the club
is based, said he and other officials narrowly missed being on the
plane that crashed. Pride in the club had swelled in Chapecó, a
relatively prosperous city with an economy that relies on large food
processing operations.
“We
were supposed to be on that flight,” said the mayor, Luciano Buligon,
adding that he and others had opted instead to take a commercial flight.
Others
expressed relief about reports of survivors, including three players.
“Thank God Alan is in the hospital, in stable condition,” Moa Ruschel,
the wife of Alan Ruschel, a defender for Chapecoense who was among the
survivors, said in a post on Instagram. “We are praying for everyone who wasn’t saved.”
Chapecoense,
founded in 1973, returned to the top tier of Brazilian soccer in 2014
after a 35-year absence. The two-legged fixture with Atlético Nacional
in the final of the Copa Sudamericana had been described as the biggest
in the team’s history.
Chapecoense’s
rise from the country’s fourth division — where it played as recently
as 2009 — has been described as a “Cinderella” story.
The
club has established a reputation for long-term thinking and financial
prudence, a rarity in the chaotic world of Brazilian soccer, and its
progress to the final of the Copa Sudamericana put it in position to
become the first team from the country to contest a continental trophy
since 2013.
Conmebol, the governing body of South American soccer, issued a statement
to say that all of the federation’s activities would be suspended until
further notice. A number of teams in Brazil canceled events; Barcelona
said it would hold a moment of silence before training on Tuesday; and
clubs from across the world, including Manchester City and AC Milan,
presented their condolences.
Romário
de Souza Faria, a former striker for the Brazilian national team,
expressed his “solidarity with the friends and families of the players,
journalists, technical staff and flight crew” who died in the crash.
“God please help all those who were on board the plane,” Alexandre Pato, who plays in Spain and has been a member of Brazil’s national team, wrote on Twitter.