Brazilian soccer team involved in tragic plane crash, scores feared dead
Scores of people are feared dead in a “tragedy of huge proportions” as a British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane carrying 81 people, including members of Chapecoense, a Brazilian soccer team crashed Monday night.
The charter aircraft, which took off from Bolivia, was flying over the town of La Union at around 10 p.m before it crashed roughly 22 miles from an airport in northwestern Colombia.
Colombian authorities say there were at least 6 survivors out of 81 people (72 passengers and nine crew members) aboard the plane, but efforts are underway to evacuate the bodies and authorities are asking residents to steer clear of the crash site.
“It’s a tragedy of huge proportions,” Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez Gutierrez told Blu Radio on his way to the scene of the crash.
While the actual cause of the tragic incident is yet to be ascertained, a statement from the José María Córdova International Airport in Rionegro, Colombia cited that some electrical flaws were reported before the crash.
According to USA Today, Colombia had been hit by heavy rains and thunderstorms in recent hours.
The Brazillian soccer team aboard the plane was expected to play in the Copa Sudamerica finals against Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin.
The first leg of the final of the cup, South America’s second most important club competition, has now been suspended.
