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Updated at 1.30pm
SEVENTY-ONE PEOPLE have died after a plane carrying 81 passengers, including members of a top flight Brazilian football team, crashed in Colombia early this morning.
Colombia police have said that six people have survived the crash, and the rest of the passengers have all been killed.
The plane went down about 50 kilometres from Medellin, Colombia’s second largest city, in an area called Cerro Gordo just before midnight last night local time (about 5am Irish time).
Officials originally said 75 people were killed. But reports now indicate that some people on the plane’s manifest may not have boarded.
The airport that serves Medellin said that among the passengers and crew were members of Chapecoense Real, a Brazilian football club that was supposed to play against Colombia’s Atletico Nacional Wednesday in the South American Cup finals.
“Confirmed, the aircraft license number CP2933 was carrying the team @ChapecoenseReal. Apparently there are survivors,” the Jose Maria Cordova de Rionegro airport said on its Twitter account.
A police commander, Jose Gerardo Acevedo, initially said only five people survived the crash, but Colombian authorities later said a sixth person was found alive, raising hopes there might be other survivors, said AFP.
Photographs circulating on social media purporting to be from the official account of the Antioquia police department show the aftermath of the crash.
The BBC reports that one of the survivors was confirmed as Chapecoense defender Alan Ruschel.
“The pain is terrible. Just as we had made it, I will not say to the top, but to have national prominence, a tragedy like this happens. It is very difficult, a very great tragedy,” club vice-president Ivan Tozzo told Globo SportTV.
Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan has expressed his condolences on behalf of the country.
He said: “This is a tragedy for those most immediately affected but also for the people of Brazil, where football lies at the core of their national identity. On behalf of the people of Ireland I would like to extend our condolences also to the people of Brazil.
“There are no reports of any Irish being involved in the incident but our embassy in Brazil, as well as our embassy in Mexico, which is accredited to Colombia, are in contact with the relevant authorities to confirm that this is the situation.”
The LAMIA aircraft was flying from Bolivia to Medellin when it crashed in an area called Cerro Gordo about 50 kilometres from the city, Colombia’s second largest.
“It appears that the plane ran out of fuel,” Elkin Ospina, the mayor of the nearby town of La Ceja, told AFP.
“It’s a tragedy of huge proportions,” Gutierrez told Blu Radio on his way to the site in a mountainous area outside the city where the chartered aircraft crashed.
On its Twitter account earlier, the Medellin airport said the crash site could only be reached overland because of bad weather in the area.
Colombia’s civil aeronautics agency said it had a team at the airport in response to the crash.
In tears
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.
The vice president of the team said that Chapeco, a city of 200,000 residents in southern Brazil where they are from, is in tears after the crash.
Statement
In a statement on its Facebook page, Chapecoense said “may God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests traveling with our delegation.”
Conmebol, the South American football confederation, meanwhile officially called off the South American Cup final that was to be played between Chapecoense and Atletico Nacional.
“All activities of the confederation are suspended until further notice,” Conmebol said.
Atletico Nacional said on its Twitter account it “profoundly laments and expresses solidarity with @chapelcoensereal for the accident that occurred.”
- © AFP 2016 with AP, Cormac Fitzgerald and Garreth MacNamee
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RIP to the people involved. Can’t even think how terrified you would be to be on that plane absolutely awful.
According to a Colombian airport press release, it had reported an electrical fault to the control tower.
Seriously, journal you might want to look into what you report? And to the stupid comments above?
RIP to all those that lost their lives
A sad day for the football world.
If an aircraft is running out of fuel there is very little the pilot can do if there isn’t a petrol station / airport nearby to land at. Strong winds can seriously increase fuel consumption and in poorer countries where money is tight, charter airlines may not have the funds to keep a large store of fuel in the tanks in case of an emergency.
Denise,
The plane probably had the required amount of fuel for the planned journey but the journey most likely didnt go to plan. I was responding to Rsm who said that the plane didn’t have the fuel CAPACITY for the journey. This is an absolutely stupid comment. Of course the plane had the fuel capacity but the likelihood is that it didn’t utilise all of this capacity
@Nick Allen:
Nick, you talk some b*ll*x!………All this conjecture and you actually haven’t a clue what really happened!
The person who said it ran out of fuel was the mayor of a nearby town. Maybe hh has inside info, buts let’s wait and see what the experts have to say.
@Nick Allen: The maximum range of the aircraft is 1,600 nautical miles but the route is 1,605 nautical miles. If you look at the routing on Flight Radar you’ll see they were in a hold so this would increase the fuel consumption even more. It’s looking very likely they simply ran out of fuel which is absolutely crazy
@Ger Healy:
So its conjecture that the pilot decided to undertake a flight in a plane which did not have the fuel capacity to complete. :)
@John Mc Avinue:
John, the distance is actually 1528nm which would be covered by the range of the plane, however, this isn’t exactly leaving much room for a route change or heavy winds.
@Nick Allen: I just generated a flight plan with the origin destination and it came in as1623nm in total.
Even if you’re correct, a strong head wind or less than optimum cruise level would negate that. Aviation laws say you need a minimum of 30 mins fuel as a reserve when you land. This would be on top of contingency for weather and delays.
To be honest, I can’t quite believe that a professional pilot would deliberately risk a journey with only barely enough fuel in the tanks. We’ll need to see what the report finds but the fact that there was no fire after the crash would suggest the tanks were empty
How do you know what happened? Serious question…
Pretty close to the destination too.horrendous rip all
“ran out of fuel” worst fail ever….. deepest condolences to all involved
@Lynne Anthony:”worst fail ever’ – is this really how people speak now?
@Lynne Anthony: get a job for Buzzfeed Lynne
It “ran out of fuel”??! Sure the aul fuel gauge is dodgy.
No. It didn’t have the fuel capacity for the planned journey.
@Rsm Young:
It is highly unlikely that the plane didn’t have the fuel capacity for the planned journey. That really is a stupid thing to say
Exactly Nick, it’s absolutely ridiculous that it didn’t have the required fuel starting out. That’s why I said sarcastically above, that the fuel gauge was dodgy.
Not very funny Denise really. Very insensitive actually.
Most likely it was an electrical systems fault which stopped fuel being pumped into the engines, highly doubt it ran out of fuel. Plus not that it has anything to do with the crash but for anyone who is interested the aircraft is ex CityJet aircraft EI-RJK.
Ryanair always flew with the recommended amount of reserve fuel. However this did not facilitate them circling airports for hours and a few times they had to divert to another airport which is relatively easy in Europe. When an aircraft diverts and says it is low in fuel it jumps the Q and lands quickly. Cynics may say this is a deliberate tactic by Ryan.
@Alan
No they weren’t, that was just pure scare mongering by the media that had no clue what they were talking about. I can assure you that Ryanair take more than enough fuel for their journeys.
Put it this way, you’re the Captain of the aircraft, the fuel load is your decision. Are you going to risk your life, the crews and the passengers by not taking enough fuel for emergencies?? I dont think so.
You Insensitive dope Denise
**** off with your back peddling Denise. You tried to be funny and came across a proper fool.
Obviously, we’ll have to wait for the investigators to report… but the Aviation Herald, as always, has the basic known facts, and it’s usual comments section, often with posts from commercial aviation pilots.
It’s a voluntary site, so donations are always welcome to help its costs btw.
The mayor’s information that there was problems on board comes from one of the air hostesses that survived .
Aircraft ar required to have a minimum reserve in case if diversions etc. This aircraft didn’t have the required reserve and as a result when required to hold could not do do so. The lack of fire at the crash site is indicitave of the lack fuel on board.
A United fan here. Munich all over again
Pablo messin from the grave!
Maybe I’m watching too much Narcos, but crashing outside Medellin after making it to the top as a team beating Escobar’s and a few Cali cartels old favorites along the way…
News brazilian football team Chapecoense were among the 81 passengers
http://47eventos.com.br/noticias/brazilian-soccer-teams-plane-crashes-in-colombia-75-dead
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The head of the columbine civil aviation authority has stated there was no fuel on board hence all available fuel had been used during the journey. The aircraft did not have the capacity to carry out the journey and comply with the minimum legal reserve. So when delays were faced in the form of head winds and poor weather it didn’t have the endurance required to divert or go into a holding pattern until the weather cleared.
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