An entire Brazilian soccer team heading to Colombia for a regional tournament final is feared dead after a charter airplane carrying 72 people crashed on its way to Medellin’s international airport.
Rescuers are enroute to the crash scene. It is not clear what caused the accident. Medellin’s Mayor gave a glimmer of hope saying that some on board may have survived the crash.
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Medellin’s Mayor Federico Gutierrez said that it is possible there are survivors. “It’s a tragedy of huge proportions,” Gutierrez told Blu Radio on his way to the site in a mountainous area outside the city where the chartered aircraft is believed to have crashed shortly before midnight local time. h/t abc7
Medellin’s airport confirmed that the aircraft, which departed from Bolivia, was transporting the Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil, which was scheduled to play the Copa Sudamerica finals against Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin.
News agency in Antioquia, Colombia, releases photos appearing to show crashed plane near La Union.
Chapecoense are a small-town provincial club, from the agro-industrial city of Chapeco in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. The club was founded in 1973. h/t espnfc
Our thoughts and prayers are with family and friends at this difficult time.