MEDELLIN, Colombia, Nov. 29 (UPI) — A plane carrying Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense crashed early Tuesday en route from Bolivia to Columbia, killing 76 people and leaving five survivors, police said.
The charter plane, which had 81 people on it — including the soccer team, several journalists and nine crew — lost contact with the airport and attempted a forced landing between La Ceija and La Union 22 miles from the Jose Maria Cordova airport in Medellin.
The survivors, which include members of the soccer team, were taken to local hospitals and a search has been mounted for the rest of the people on the plane, with officials driving from the airport in Medellin to help. Initially six people survived the crash, but one died later, Colombia’s civil aviation agency said.
Emergency officials initially announced five people survived the crash, but a sixth person was found alive under the fuselage of the plane.
A Colombian air force search-and-rescue helicopter mission was canceled due to poor visibility and getting to the crash site has been difficult because of the weather, officials say.
Airport officials gave the plane, operated by small airline LaMia, priority to land after the pilots reported an emergency, but the plane never got close to the runway. There were conflicting reports that the plane ran out of fuel or that there was an electrical problem.
#NoticiasTM Primeras imágenes del avión accidentado de Chapecoense http://owl.li/SiNV306Cfqh
