RIONEGRO, Colombia, Nov. 30 (UPI) — A pilot on the doomed charter jet that carried a Brazilian soccer team told air traffic controllers before the crash that the aircraft had run out of fuel, audio recordings from the flight deck indicate.
W Radio in Colombia broadcast parts of the recording on Wednesday between the flight’s pilots and traffic controllers.
The charter flight was headed from Bolivia to Medellin, Colombia, for the championship match of the Copa Sudamericana on Tuesday when it crashed into mountainous terrain near Rionegro. Seventy-one people were killed, including most of the soccer team.
Six people survived, including two crew members, a journalist and three team members.
On the audio recording, pilots in the cockpit repeatedly told ATC that they were having difficulty controlling the airplane, were experiencing electrical problems and were nearly out of fuel.
A pilot on a nearby flight in the area said he heard the mayday calls.
“Mayday mayday… help us get to the runway… help, help,” the pilot said of the conversation he overheard. “Then it ended. We all started to cry.”
“Many passengers got up from their seats and started yelling,” flight technician Erwin Tumir told Colombia’s Radio Caracol. “I put the bag between my legs and went into the fetal position as recommended.”
The Avro RJ85 jet crashed about 8 miles from the airport in Medellin. A pilot on the plane told controllers right before the crash the flight was at an altitude of 9,000 feet over the Andes mountain range.
The cause of the crash is under investigation. Authorities have recovered the plane’s data and voice recorders, which are expected to illuminate possible causes.
