Brazilian football team Chapecoense’s plane crashes in Colombia

The South American soccer federation canceled all activities until further notice as a result of Monday’s crash in Colombia of a plane carrying Brazilian first division team Chapecoense.

Rescue crews work at the scene of the crash in the Colombian jungle near Medellin.

The plane crashed in a mountainous rural area outside of the city of Medellin and heavy rain at one point halted rescue operations.

“I can confirm that this is the plane where the players were and right now we are following the events”.

“We are strong”, he wrote.

“We ran to search for survivors”.

Only three Chapecoense players are believed to have survived the crash – left back Alan Ruschel, defender Helio “Neto” Zampier and reserve goalkeeper Jakson Follmann.

Ruschel also was in intensive care but in stable condition, Dr Ana Maria Gonzalez, director of another clinic also treating them, told Reuters. It says two crew members, Ximena Suárez, a flight attendant, and Erwin Tumiri, a flight technician, have been taken to the Somer clinic in Rionegro.

Alfredo Bocanegra, head of Colombia’s aviation agency, said that while evidence initially pointed to an electrical problem, the possibility the crash was caused by lack of fuel has not been ruled out.

Brazil’s air force has a Hercules cargo plane waiting in Medellin to return the bodies of the victims, which include most of Brazil’s Chapecoense soccer team.

Known as Mario Sergio, he played briefly for Brazil’s national team in the early 1980s and had a long career as a midfielder and coach with many Brazilian clubs.

In a moving gesture, Atletico Nacional asked that the championship title be given to Chapecoense, whose upstart run in the tournament electrified soccer-crazed Brazil.

Only six of the total 81 people aboard the LaMia flight carrying players from the Chapecoense de Brazil soccer club survived the tragic crash.

“Yesterday morning I was saying goodbye to them”, he said. “They played for love of the shirt and not for money”.

The BAe 146 was produced by a company that is now part of the UK’s BAE Systems.

From the airport officials reports, the plane started in in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at 3.35 pm and made a stop at Santa Cruz de la Sierra before setting off for Colombia. “At the same time, wishing an early recovery for the survivors”.

The mayor of nearby Medellin said on Twitter that he is on his way to the accident site. Along with the squad members, there were also 22 football journalist on the plane.

According to the local news site mioriente.com at least 10 people are now receiving treatment at the scene. Last week, it advanced to the Copa Sudamericana finals – the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament – after defeating two of Argentina’s fiercest squads, San Lorenzo and Independiente, as well as Colombian club Junior.

These were going to be the games of their lives for players on the humble Brazilian club Chapecoense.

Several hundred dejected fans gathered around the team’s Conda stadium in Chapeco, many of them wearing Chapecoense’s green strip.

The club, from Chapeco in the state of Santa Catarina in the south of Brazil, was only formed in the 1970s and was playing in the country’s lower fourth tier as recently as 2007.