Colombia was
investigating Wednesday what made a charter plane crash into its northwestern
mountains, killing 71 people including most of a Brazilian football team
and 20
journalists.
Football fans
were in tears in the team's hometown of Chapeco and their opponents mourned in
the Colombian city of Medellin, where the doomed flight crashed Monday.
Officials and
media reports in Brazil and Colombia speculated that the plane might have run
out of fuel or suffered a technical fault.
The Brazilian
club Chapecoense Real was on the way to crowning a fairytale year in the Copa
Sudamericana final against Medellin side Atletico Nacional.
The crash cut
short their dream, sending the football world into mourning.
Announcing the
crash on Monday night, the aviation authority said the plane had reported
electrical problems just before the crash.
But a
Colombian military source told AFP: "It is very suspicious that despite
the impact there was no explosion. That reinforces the theory of the lack of
fuel."
- Black boxes
-
Colombia's
civil aviation authority said in a statement it hoped to establish the cause of
Monday night's crash "as soon as possible."
British and
Brazilian investigators headed to Colombia to help with the probe, authorities
said.
The charter
flight run by Bolivian airline LAMIA crashed in mountains at an altitude of
3,300 meters (10,827 feet) as it approached its destination, authorities said.
Officials said
the weather on the night was bad.
Along with 71
bodies, investigators recovered the black boxes from the British Aerospace 146
charter plane from the remote crash site.
"When the
black box is opened, nothing will be lost. It will reveal everything,"
said Colombian Transport Minister Jorge Eduardo Rojas.
Bolivian civil
aviation chief Cesar Varela told reporters "the crew had their licenses in
order. Everything was in order."
- Miracle
survivors -
Six people
miraculously survived the crash. Three of the survivors were footballers, but
goalkeeper Jaqson Follmann had his right leg amputated, said the San Vicente
Foundation Hospital outside Medellin.
Two flight
crew and a journalist following Chapecoense for the game against Medellin also
survived.
Four people
did not turn up for the flight, including a journalist and two politicians.
"It's one
of those things in life. Only God knows why I ended up staying behind,"
said Luciano Buligon, the mayor of Chapeco in southern Brazil.
He arrived on
Wednesday in Medellin to oversee the return of the bodies.
- 'Terrible
pain' -
Brazil ordered
three days of national mourning for the team.
Fans flocked
to the Chapecoense stadium to mourn the team, who have emerged from nowhere
over the past two years to take South American football by storm.
"The pain
is terrible. Just as we had made it, I will not say to the top, but to have
national prominence, a tragedy like this happens," club vice president
Ivan Tozzo told Globo SporTV.
Other
Brazilian clubs have offered them players so they can continue competing.
Special funds have also been set up.
Football
legends Pele and Maradona and current superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano
Ronaldo led tributes to the Chapecoense team.
- Football
mourns -
Pope Francis
said in a statement he was "deeply grieved" by the crash.
The Spanish
football league said next Saturday's blockbuster clash between Barcelona and
Real Madrid will be preceded by a minute's silence for the crash victims.
Atletico
Nacional called for a gathering in support of the victims on Wednesday evening.
It called on
fans to come dressed in white with candles to the Atanasio Girardot, where the
first-leg semi-final game was meant to be played.
"Let this
sadness be turned into a legacy of hope and the passion of dreams," it
said on Twitter.
AFP
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