Plane Carrying a Brazilian Soccer Team and 72 Passengers CrA chartered aircraft carrying a Brazilian soccer team to Colombia for a regional tournament final has crashed on its way to the international airport in Medellin, Colombia, officials said Tuesday.
“It’s a tragedy of huge proportions,” Mayor Federico Gutierrez of Medillin told Blu Radio.
The plane crashed in a mountainous area outside the city shortly before midnight on Monday. Mr. Gutierrez said that it was possible there were survivors.
It was not clear what caused the crash of the aircraft, a British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, but heavy rains and thunderstorms had been reported in the area.
The plane was reported to be carrying at least 72 people on board, although it was not known if that figure included the crew.
Medellin’s airport confirmed that the aircraft, which made a stop in Bolivia, was transporting the first division Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil. The team was scheduled to play Wednesday in the first of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin.
A video published on the team’s Facebook page showed the team readying for the flight earlier Monday in São Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport.
The team, from the small city of Chapeco, joined Brazil’s first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it to the Copa Sudamericana finals last week by defeating Argentina’s legendary San Lorenzo squad.
