LATIN AMERICA: A plane with 81 people on board, including the Brazilian football team Chapecoense has crashed on its way to Medellin’s airport in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Flight CP 2933 was transporting players to Medellin airport when it disappeared off radar and crashed into countryside. They were flying to play a Copa Sudamerica finals match against Atlético Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin.
Medellin’s mayor, Federico Gutierrez, said the crash, close to the town of Cerro Gordo, was a “tragedy of huge proportions.” The Brazilian football confederation said in a statement that it was praying for the passengers and crew.
Initial reports said there were six survivors, including players, a crew member and travelling journalist, but police said one had died in hospital.
The organization said in a statement that all football activities were suspended until further notice and also
South America’s football federation extended its condolences to the entire Chapecoense community and said its president, Luis Dominguez, was on his way to Medellin.
The plane, a British Aerospace 146 short-haul aircraft has started its journey in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at 3.35pm local time. It made a stop in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, a bustling economic hub in eastern Bolivia, later that day before setting off for Colombia.
It declared an emergency at Santa Cruz because of electrical failures between the municipalities of La Ceja and La Unión in Colombia.
The statement read.“At the moment we know that the disaster happened in Cerro Gordo in the municipality of La Unión and that there were 72 passengers and nine crew aboard, including the football team Chapocoense Real. There are reported to be six survivors.”
Chapecoense had already travelled to Argentina twice, beating Independiente and San Lorenzo, and Colombia once, where they lost to Junior 1-0 but progressed on aggregate in the quarter-finals.