A plane carrying a Brazilian football team crashed in the mountains in Colombia, killing an estimated 75 people while six survived, including several players, officials said on Tuesday.
The LAMIA airlines charter declared an emergency at around 10:00 pm (local time), reporting it had suffered “electrical failures,” and crashed a short time later near the city of Medellin, officials said.
The plane was carrying members of Chapecoense Real, a Brazilian football club that had risen from obscurity to reach the Copa Sudamericana finals, which were set for tomorrow against Atletico Nacional of Colombia.
“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.
In all, there were 72 passengers and nine crew on board the British Aerospace 146.
Brazil''s President Michel Temer declared three days of mourning for the victims.
Football stars including Argentina''s Lionel Messi and retired legend Diego Maradona led tributes to the players and messages of mourning.
The civil aviation authority said six of the 81 people on board were known to have survived the crash, which left the plane's wrecked white shell plastered over a hillside.
A spokesperson for the authority told AFP that goalkeeper Marcos Danilo Padilha, 31, died after being transferred to hospital from the remote site of the crash.
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