JUST IN: Plane carrying Brazilian football team Chapecoense crashes in Colombia
Brazil’s Chapecoense players pose for pictures during their 2016 Copa Sudamericana semifinal second leg football match in Chapeco, Brazil, on November 23. Photograph: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images |
Authorities are responding to an emergency after a plane with 72
people on board crashed on its way to Medellin international airport in Colombia.
The airport said on its Twitter account that the aircraft had departed from Bolivia.
Local media reported that the charter aircraft was carrying members of the football team Chapecoense from Brazil, which is scheduled to play Copa Sudamerica finals against Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin.
Medellin’s Mayor Federico Gutierrez said that it is possible there are survivors.
“It’s a tragedy of huge proportions,” Gutierrez told Blu Radio on his
way to the site in a mountainous area outside the city where the
chartered aircraft is believed to have crashed shortly before midnight
local time.
He said ambulances and rescuers were on their way. It is not clear what caused the crash.
Medellin airport later confirmed that the aircraft, which departed
from Bolivia, was transporting the Chapecoense soccer team from southern
Brazil.
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