(Photo by Friedemann Vogel/Getty Images)
Top flight Brazilain soccer team Chapecoense was involved in a fatal plane crash early Tuesday morning. The chartered plane crashed outside the city of Medellin, killing 76 and leaving just six survivors. Rescuers have begun removing bodies from the site of the air crash in Colombia, as it has emerged the pilot circled in a desperate attempt to burn off fuel before attempting to land.
The Avro RJ85 plane suffered power failures while flying through the Antioquia Department on its way from Bolivia. Officials said it smashed into a mountain and broke into two separate pieces.
Via CNN:
On Tuesday, the airplane carrying the Brazilian team to the biggest game in the club’s history crashed in Rionegro, Colombia, killing 75 people. Six people survived the crash and were taken to local hospitals, according to authorities.Chapecoense was supposed to play the first leg of its Copa Sudamericana final on Wednesday against Colombian side Atletico Nacional from Medellin before its plane came down. The Copa Sudamericana, the second biggest intercontinental club competition in South America and the equivalent to Europe’s Europa League, had provided the backdrop to Chapecoense’s remarkable story.The club, from Chapeco in the state of Santa Catarina in the south of Brazil was only formed in the 1970s and was playing in the country’s fourth tier as recently as 2007. A team with few big names, apart from Cleber Santana, who once played for Atletico Madrid and Mallorca in Spain, it went toe-to-toe with the big boys of Brazilian football.
Journalist Euan McTear told CNN, “The club returned to the top flight of Brazilian football just three years ago after a three-decade hiatus and a number of the players that led them on this incredible run to the final of the Copa Sudamericana were the same players who helped them win promotion from the Serie B in 2013.”
