ifwt_plane-crash

A chartered plane carrying a first-division Brazilian soccer team to a historic game crashed in northwestern Colombia on Monday night, killing 76 of the 81 people aboard, authorities said. Six people initially survived the crash, but one of them died a short time later, authorities said.

via USA Today:

The plane took off from Bolivia and was flying over the town of La Union at around 10 p.m. when the crew declared an emergency, according to a statement from the José María CórdovaInternational Airport in Rionegro, Colombia. The plane crashed moments later a mountainous area in the Antioquian municipality, about 22 miles from the airport, which serves the city of Medellin.

There were 81 passengers included members of Chapecoense, a Brazilian soccer team that had risen from relative obscurity to play in one of South America’s most prestigious tournaments. The team had been scheduled to play in the Copa Sudamerica finals against Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin.

Chapecoense defender Alan Ruschel, 27, was in a stable condition after being pulled from the plane’s wreckage, said Alfredo Bocanegra, head of Colombia’s civil aeronautics agency. He said two other players, a journalist and flight attendant Ximena Suarez also survived and where taken to nearby hospitals

The plane is a British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane. It is not clear what caused the crash, but Colombia had been hit by heavy rains and thunderstorms around the time of the tragedy.

ShayAux: Twitter || Instagram