A plane carrying 72 passengers including a top flight
Brazilian football team has crashed in Colombia. Brazilian side Chapecoense
were on their way from Bolivia to Medellin International Airport in Colombia to
play in the Copa Sudamerica final when the plane came down.
Officials
at Medellin airport said just ‘six people may have survived’.
The
plane, which was carrying nine crew, crashed at about 10.15pm after suffering
power failures while flying through the mountainous Antioquia Department.
The
crash site is only able to be reached by ground emergency services due to the
steep terrain and low visibility, and is 30 minutes outside of the town of La
Unión.
Hugo
Botero Lopez, mayor of La Union, told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo: ‘There are
firemen from La Union, Rionegro, El Carmen de Vibroal, La Ceja, there are more
than 90 lifeguards, but it is not easy to get people who are alive.’
Medellin’s
Mayor Federico Gutierrez said there could be 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
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