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A chartered plane transporting Brazilian football team Chapecoense to Medellin’s international airport in Colombia crashed overnight, killing 76 people, Colombian officials have confirmed. Five people survived.
ESPN quoted aviation authorities as saying that the British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline named LaMia, declared an emergency at 10 p.m. local time on Monday because of an electrical failure, aviation authorities said.
Authorities responded to the plane crash at a hill in La Union, according to the Jose Maria Cordova airport’s Twitter page. The municipality is roughly 22 miles from the airport.
The charter aircraft, which took off from Bolivia, was carrying 72 passengers and nine crew members, including Chapecoense who were expected to play in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin.
Antioquia police colonel Jose Gerardo Acevedo confirmed to reporters that emergency personnel found six survivors, one of whom died shortly after the rescue while being attended by the medics.
“There were no others with any signs of life,” Acevedo said. “Now, we are just waiting on the daylight so we can move the bodies.”
CONMEBOL, South American football’s governing body, has confirmed in a statement that the Copa Sudamericana final and “all federation activities” have been suspended until further notice.
Among the survivors, whose injuries have not yet been detailed, are Brazilian football players Jackson Follman, Alan Ruschel and Marcos Danilo Padilha. A Bolivian flight attendant, Ximena Suarez and a Brazilian journalist, Rafael Henzel, were also among the five who were taken to a regional hospital for treatment.