Plane carrying Brazilian team Chapecoense crashes in Colombia: 71 confirmed dead
Members of the top-flight Brazilian side Chapecoense were on board a plane which has crashed on its way to Medellin, killing 71.
Three days of mourning have been declared in Brazil after a plane carrying 22 members of football team Chapecoense crashed in Colombia on Monday night.
71 dead
71 of 77 on board have died after the charter aircraft, scheduled to land in the city of Medellin, failed to reach its destination. There were six survivors.
Copa Sudamericana finals
Among the 68 passengers on board were players and staff from Chapecoense, a top-flight Brazilian team who play in the Brasileiro Serie A, while there were also nine crew members.
Those on board also included Chapecoense coaching staff, executives, guests of the club and 21 journalists.
The team was due to play in the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin.
Six survivors
Six people - three footballers, two crew members and one journalist - survived the crash, while another player, goalkeeper Danilo, was pulled from the wreckage but died in hospital.
The plane – a British Aerospace 146 short-haul aircraft – started its journey in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at 15:35 local time, before making a stop Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.
The plane reported an emergency on approach to Medellin due to electical failures, and was given priority to land, before contact was lost at 02:55.
It was initially understood that 75 had been killed in the accident; however, it later emerged that four passengers had failed to board the flight in Bolivia.
Chapecoense
The team are based in the city of Chapecó in the state of Santa Catarina and play in Brazil’s Série A. The club was founded in 1973 and only recently won promotion to the top flight for the first time in 2014. Chapecoense are currently ninth in the table after 37 games gone.
The Copa Sudamericana - the competition the team were supposed to play in on Wednesday - is South America’s secondary cup tournament after Copa Libertadores.
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