Colombia plane crash: Bodies of victims flown home to Brazil

The bodies of the Chapecoense soccer team players and officials who died in a plane crash in Medellin, Colombia, were flown back to their homeland Brazil on Friday (2 December).

Brazilian President Michel Temer is due to greet the planes at the airport.

Residents of the Brazilian city of Chapeco draped their homes and businesses in the team’s signature green and black as a mark of respect for the 71 people killed when the plane they were travelling on crashed on Monday night.

The plane carrying Chapecoense’s players, staff, journalists and flight crew members to the team’s first-ever global championship match in Medellin, Colombia, crashed about 30 miles from its destination late Monday.

Chapeco Mayor Luciano Buligon, like several speakers, praised the aid Colombia provided – along with the club Atletico Nactional, the team Chapecoense was to play in the two-game final.

Chapecoense Real football club players and manager staff perished when their plane smashed into the mountains outside Medellin, Colombia on Monday Nov 28, 2016.

As the bodies of the victims killed in the plane crash began the journey home Friday, gravediggers finished preparing the ground at cemeteries in the small city of Chapeco.

Osmar Machado, whose son, Filipe, a defender on the Chapecoense team, died on his father’s 66th birthday, questioned why the plane was transporting the team.

More than 100,000 people – about half of the city’s population – are expected to attend the service later in honour of the team, whose fairy tale season was tragically cut short.

Instead, they looked on as Air Force troops, after unloading the bodies from cargo aircraft, ferried the caskets to makeshift tents erected on the team’s soggy home turf, where victims’ families sat in sorrow.

Some 100,000 fans, about half the city’s population, are likely to attend, as is Gianni Infantino, president of world soccer governing body Federation Internationale de Football Association.

Personal videos that emerged after the accident show a jubilant atmosphere on the plane before it took off from the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, where LaMia airlines is headquartered.

The Bolivia-based charter company, LAMIA, had its permit suspended Thursday.

“I’ve been here since early morning”, said Chaiane Lorenzetti, a 19-year-old who said she worked at a local supermarket frequented by club players and officials.

“It felt like every day you would bump into them and their families”. Radio conversations between Quiroga and an air traffic controller at the Jose Maria Cordova airport confirmed that the pilot had reported an “electrical fault, and we are without fuel”, shortly before contact was lost.

The lack of an explosion upon impact also pointed to a rare case of fuel burnout as a cause of the crash of the British Aerospace 146 Avro RJ85.

Colombia’s civil aviation safety chief said the crew of the British Aerospace 146 jet had disregarded global rules on fuel reserves.