Brazil mourns victims of Colombia plane crash, probe begins

The region experienced poor weather conditions when the plane, a British Aerospace 146 short-haul aircraft, went down but there is still no conclusive evidence on the reason of the crash. The team had been scheduled to play in the Copa Sudamerica finals against Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin.

The team were travelling to what was billed as the biggest match in their history – the Copa Sudamericana final – due to be played today in Medellin.

Football-crazy Brazil has declared three days of mourning over the incident.

The plane was found shattered against a mountainside, with the tail end virtually gone.

Twenty-one journalists were also on board, the aviation authority reported.

The Civil Aeronautics Communication chief of Colombia, Uriel Bedoya, who has just visited the accident site, near Medellín, confirmed by telephone to OGlobo that the experts already have the two black boxes of the aircraft, which will help to determine what happened.

“It is common for Brazilians to say that the country has 12 clubs with actual chances to win the national title at the start of every season”, wrote Plus55 of the Chapeco team this week.

The three other survivors were journalist Rafael Valmorbida, air stewardess Ximena Suarez and flight technician Erwin Tumiri.

In condolence telegrams to the local Colombia bishop and to the head of the Brazilian bishops conference, Francis expressed his solidarity and consolation to families of the dead and injured.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Temer also said that officials from the foreign ministry and aviation officials were mobilising to aid the relief effort.

By last night, rescuers had recovered most of the bodies which were to be repatriated to Brazil and to Bolivia, where all the plane’s nine-person crew were from.

The vigils came as it was announced that United Kingdom crash experts were being flown in to help establish what exactly happened to the plane, which came down en route from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to Medellin, Colombia.

The South American football federation has suspended all games following the tragedy.

The plane crash that wiped out Brazil’s Chapecoense football team also killed 20 Brazilian journalists, ranging from veteran commentators to young local reporters.

Bolivian civil aviation authority DGAC said the plane departed Santa Cruz under ideal conditions.”The crew had their licenses in order, everything was in order for the flight”, DGAC head Cesar Varela told journalists.