Bolivia suspends LaMia Airlines after deadly crash in Colombia

People attend a candlelight vigil for victims of a plane crash at the Nemesio Camacho Stadium in Bogota, Colombia, on Tuesday after 71 people died when an aircraft crashed late Monday with 77 people on board, including players of the Brazilian soccer club Chapecoense. Bolivia on Thursday suspended the operations of the company that chartered the plane, the LaMia Corporation. Photo by Leonardo Munoz/European Pressphoto Agency

SUCRE, Bolivia, Dec. 1 (UPI) — Bolivia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has suspended LaMia Airlines’ operations after a crash in Colombia that killed 71 people.

“The Directorate General of Civil Aviation reports that Administrative Resolution No. 716, dated November 29, 2016, ordered the immediate suspension of the Air Operator Certificate … and the Operation Permit granted to the company ‘LaMia Corporation SRL’ in virtue of the attributions provided” by two Bolivian laws, the agency said in a statement published Thursday.

LaMia Airlines Flight 2933, a charter plane headed from Bolivia to Medellin for the championship match of the Copa Sudamericana, crashed Tuesday into mountainous terrain near Rionegro, Colombia. Seventy-one people were killed, including most of the Chapecoense Brazilian soccer team.

Six people survived, including two crew members, a journalist and three team members.

The plane’s data and voice recorders were recovered.

On the audio recording, pilots in the cockpit repeatedly told air traffic controllers that they were having difficulty controlling the airplane, were experiencing electrical problems and were nearly out of fuel.

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