Four
people who were due to board the plane that crashed, killing 71 people in
Colombia, have revealed how last-minute changes stopped them from getting on
the flight, CNN
reports.
The Lamia 2933 flight, carrying
Brazilian football team Chapecoense, crashed late Monday near Medellin. Six of
the 77 people on board survived.
Gelson Merisio, a state
legislator for Santa Catarina and an ardent fan of the Brazilian club, planned
to travel with the players to watch them take on Atletico Nacional in the first
leg of their Copa Sudamericana final.
Merisio, 50, had been looking
forward to the game only to switch his plans late on because of work
commitments.
“I want to be clear, that while
I was scheduled to fly on the plane with the team, I opted not to do it due to
work obligations this week,” he wrote in a statement on Facebook.
Later, after the severity of
the crash became evident, he paid tribute to those who lost their lives.
Just three players, Jackson
Ragnar Follmann, Alan Ruschel and Helio Hermito Zampier Neto, survived the
crash. Three others, two crew members and a reporter also survived.
Doctors in Medellin amputated
Follmann’s right leg and he is currently in the hospital’s intensive care unit,
according to Juan David Arteaga, the Undersecretary of Social Protection for
the state of Antioquia.
Arteaga says Neto is under
observation following multiple surgeries and Alan Ruschel is in the ICU.
Another of those who was
originally supposed to be on the plane was journalist Ivan
Agnoletto. He said he gave up his seat for colleague Gelson Galliotto,
who had always dreamed of covering such a huge game.
“The pain is still too much for
me to think about if God would’ve saved me,” Agnoletto told Globo.
“I was scheduled to cover the
game, but my colleague had a huge dream to cover an international final.
“When I told Gelson Galiotto
the news that he could go in my place, he could not believe it: ‘Really? I’m
really going?’ It was his dream.”
Agnoletto said he did not hear
about the crash until his wife began to receive a barrage of calls with people
offering their condolences.
“It was as if I was dead,” he
added. “I went to the TV and saw the plane had crashed.”
The mayor of Chapeco, Luciano
Buligon, and the president of the club’s board, Plinio David de Nes Filho, were
also on the passenger list but missed the flight to attend a meeting in Sao
Paulo.
“Only God can explain these
things, and how I stayed behind,” Buligon told Globo.
“It is the biggest tragedy
Chapeco could go through. We lived a moment of ecstasy with our football club.”
Meanwhile, supporters of
Chapecoense have held an emotional vigil for the victims of the
crash in which almost all the team’s players and officials died.
Thousands of fans gathered at
the Arena Conda Stadium in Chapeco and held lights up in the darkness in
tribute to the 71 victims.PUNCH
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