Fans mourn the Chapecoense players who died in Monday's plane crash

Three of Brazil's leading clubs have said they will offer players to Chapecoense, after the majority of their squad died in a plane crash.

Chapecoense players and officials died when their plane crashed on its approach to Medellin, Colombia.

They were travelling to play in the Copa Sudamericana final first leg, and opponents Atletico Nacional have asked for Chapecoense to be awarded the cup.

Flamengo, Palmeiras and Sao Paulo are the clubs to have offered help.

Sao Paulo, who have won six national titles, also said Chapecoense should be exempt from relegation to Brazilian football's second tier for the next three seasons as they attempt to rebuild the club.

Six of the 77 people aboard the plane survived the crash, which was blamed on an electrical fault.

Three of the six survivors are footballers:

Defender Alan Ruschel, who has spinal injuries

Defender Helio Zemper, who has injuries to his skull and chest

Reserve goalkeeper Jakson Follman, who has unspecified injuries

A statement by Fox Sports Latin America said that six employees from its Brazil operation died in the crash.

In the aftermath of the 1958 Munich air disaster, both Liverpool and Nottingham Forest offered to loan players to Manchester United, and players from non-league Bishop Auckland featured for the Red Devils. </s> The 2016 plane crash that wiped out a Brazilian football team was caused by a lack of fuel, Colombia's aviation authority said Friday following an extensive investigation into the disaster.

The probe was launched after the November 28 crash which claimed the lives of 71 people, including all but a handful of players from Brazil's Chapecoense Real football club.

The accident "was caused by the plane's empty fuel tank as a result of inappropriate risk management by LaMia (Airlines)," said Miguel Camacho, who heads the authority's accident investigation branch.

LaMia Airlines is a Bolivian-registered charter company that specializes in flying Latin American football clubs.

Investigators from Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia had been looking into what caused the crash, with Friday's report confirming what had been one of the leading theories after a recording emerged in which the pilot radioed the control tower to report a fuel emergency.

Following a preliminary investigation a month after the crash, the Colombian aviation authority said it believed the airline had disregarded international rules on fuel reserves.

In its report Friday, the aviation authority said it had found sufficient "evidential and technical support" to corroborate that theory.

Chapecoense had been enjoying a fairy tale season and were en route to the biggest match in their history, which they were tipped to win, when the plane went down, crashing into the Colombian mountains not far from the city of Medellin.

Of the 77 people onboard, only six people survived, three of them Chapecoense players.

Also killed were 20 Brazilian journalists who were traveling with the team to cover the match. </s> Brazil’s top-flight football teams offered to loan players to Chapecoense for next season after the small southern club lost almost all their players in a plane crash in Colombia.

The teams also asked the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) on Tuesday to give Chapecoense a three-year exemption from relegation – the process through which teams are assigned to a lower classification if they do not perform well.

The Brazilian team were on their way to Medellín to play the Colombian side Atlético Nacional in the final of the Copa Sudamericana, South America’s equivalent of the Europa League, when the plane crashed into a hillside on Monday night.

“It is the minimum gesture of solidarity that is within our reach at this point in time but it is borne of the sincerest desire to reconstruct this institution and that part of Brazilian football that was lost today,” the statement said.

The CBF did not immediately respond to the offer. The final on Wednesday was cancelled and all games scheduled for the upcoming week in Brazil were postponed. </s> The 2016 plane crash that wiped out a Brazilian football team Chapecoense was caused by a lack of fuel, Colombia’s aviation authority said Friday following an extensive investigation into the disaster.

The probe was launched after the November 28 crash which claimed the lives of 71 people, including all but a handful of players from Brazil’s Chapecoense Real football club.

The accident “was caused by the plane’s empty fuel tank as a result of inappropriate risk management by LaMia (Airlines),” said Miguel Camacho, who heads the authority’s accident investigation branch.

LaMia Airlines is a Bolivian-registered charter company that specializes in flying Latin American football clubs.

Investigators from Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia had been looking into what caused the crash, with Friday’s report confirming what had been one of the leading theories after a recording emerged in which the pilot radioed the control tower to report a fuel emergency.

Following a preliminary investigation a month after the crash, the Colombian aviation authority said it believed the airline had disregarded international rules on fuel reserves.

In its report Friday, the aviation authority said it had found sufficient “evidential and technical support” to corroborate that theory.

Chapecoense had been enjoying a fairy tale season and were en route to the biggest match in their history, which they were tipped to win, when the plane went down, crashing into the Colombian mountains not far from the city of Medellin.

Of the 77 people onboard, only six people survived, three of them Chapecoense players.

Also killed were 20 Brazilian journalists who were traveling with the team to cover the match.

The post Lack of fuel caused 2016 Brazil football team Chapecoense plane crash appeared first on Vanguard News.

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This post was syndicated from Vanguard News. Click here to read the full text on the original website. </s> Families are preparing to receive the bodies of the victims of this week's air tragedy in Colombia as experts develop a clearer picture of how things went so terribly wrong with a charter flight that slammed into a mountainside.

Many of the 71 killed were players and coaches from a small-town Brazilian soccer team that was headed to the finals of one of South America's most prestigious tournaments after a fairy-tale season that had captivated their soccer-crazed nation.

On Thursday, white sheets printed with the logo of the Chapocoense soccer club lay over row upon row of caskets at a Medellin funeral home. Most of the remains had been identified and were expected to be flown home Friday.

Bolivian aviation officials announced they were indefinitely suspending the charter company that operated the flight after a recording of conversations between a pilot of the doomed flight and air traffic controllers, as well as the account of a surviving flight attendant, indicated the plane ran out of fuel. The jet, which took off from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was flying at its maximum range when it crashed late Monday, killing all but six of the 77 people on board.

In Brazil, grieving relatives of the dead spoke out in disbelief.

Osmar Machado, whose son, Filipe, a defender on the Chapecoense team, died on his father's 66th birthday, questioned why the plane was transporting the team.

"Profit brings greed," Machado said, speaking in the team's hometown of Chapeco. "This plane ended (the lives of) 71 people."

Williams Brasiliano, uncle of midfielder Arthur Maia, said the crash could have been avoided if the team had chosen a commercial flight and not a charter.

"Look how complicated that flight was going to be even if it had arrived," Brasiliano said tearfully of the team's itinerary, which included a flight from Sao Paulo to Bolivia on a commercial airliner before the ill-fated flight to Medellin.

"I doubt that a bigger club would have done the same," he added.

Chapecoense spokesman Andrei Copetti defended the decision, saying more than 30 teams had used the Bolivia-based company, LaMia airlines, including the national teams of Argentina and Bolivia. He added that the team itself had flown on its flights before.

"They had a good service then. It was the airline that got in touch with us because they have experience in doing these long flights in South America," he said.

A recording of the flight's final minutes showed the pilot repeatedly requested permission to land because of "fuel problems," although he never made a formal distress call. He was told another plane with mechanical problems had priority for the airport's single runway and was instructed to wait seven minutes.

As the jetliner circled, the pilot grew more desperate. "Complete electrical failure, without fuel," he said. By then the controller had gauged the seriousness of the situation and told the other plane to abandon its approach to make way for the charter jet. It was too late.

The lack of an explosion upon impact also pointed to a rare case of fuel burnout as a cause of the crash of the British Aerospace 146 Avro RJ85.

The air traffic controller said in an email sent to her colleagues and released to local media Thursday that she had done everything humanly and technically possible to save the plane.

The Bolivian Civil Aviation Authority announced it had indefinitely halted all flights operated by LaMia and also was suspending some aviation officials during the investigation.

British aviation authorities said the flight data and cockpit voice recorders recovered from the accident site were being taken to Britain for study. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage shows the devastation following the crash near Medellin in Colombia

A plane carrying 77 people, including a top Brazilian football team, has crashed on its approach to the city of Medellin in Colombia.

Colombia's civil aviation body says only six people survived the crash, blamed on an electrical fault.

The chartered aircraft, flying from Brazil via Bolivia, was carrying members of the Chapecoense team.

The team had been due to play in the final of the Copa Sudamericana, against Medellin team Atletico Nacional.

Organisers say Atletico Nacional has asked for Chapecoense to be awarded the cup. Brazilian clubs have offered to lend players to them for free for the next year.

Colombian aviation officials said there were 21 journalists on board.

What happened?

The plane lost contact with ground controllers as it approached Medellin at about 22:15 (03:45 GMT), after the pilot reported an electrical fault. It came down in a mountainous area.

At least two of the survivors are footballers. They were confirmed to be defender Alan Ruschel and reserve goalkeeper Jackson Follman.

Image copyright AP Image caption The plane was travelling from Brazil via Bolivia

Some reports suggest another defender, Helio Neto, was also rescued.

Goalkeeper Marcos Padilha, also known as Danilo, was pulled alive from the wreckage but a spokesman said he later died in hospital.

The sports network Telemundo Deportes tweeted (in Spanish) that Ruschel was in shock but conscious and talking, and had asked to keep his wedding ring and to see his family.

Who are Chapecoense? - Luis Barrucho, BBC Brasil

Image copyright AFP Image caption The team were due to play in the first leg of the final of the Copa Sudamericana

Shortly before boarding in Sao Paulo, Chapecoense manager Cadu Gaucho, 36, appeared in a video posted on the team's Facebook site [in Portuguese] describing the trip to Medellin as "the club's most important to date".

Playing in the final of the Copa Sudamericana was to be the highlight of a glorious season for the team from a small city of less than 200,000 inhabitants in the state of Santa Catarina.

Founded in 1973, the team has been playing in Brazil's Serie A since only 2014 but is currently ninth ahead of much more famous and established teams such as Sao Paulo, Fluminense and Cruzeiro.

Last week, it became the first Brazilian team in three years to make it to the final of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's second most important club competition, after beating Argentine side San Lorenzo.

One of the founders of the club, Alvadir Pelisser, told BBC Brasil the tragedy had put an "end to everyone's dream". "We were a family, I'm shocked," he added.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rescuers are working in cold, hilly terrain with only hand torches for light

Read our coverage in Spanish and in Portuguese

What is the reaction?

Brazilian President Michel Temer announced three days of national mourning, and top Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona held a minute's silence at the beginning of their practice sessions.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Bodies from the crash site were removed at daylight on Tuesday

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption A young boy mourns the team at their stadium in Chapeco - many more have gathered outside

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sports journalist Ricardo Setyon knew some of those on board

Chapecoense's vice-president, Ivan Tozzo, told cable channel SporTV: "There are a lot of people crying in our city. We could never imagine this. Chapecoense is the biggest reason for joy here."

Goalkeeping coach Marcelo De Quadros Kunst stayed in Brazil with players who did not travel to Colombia.

He told the BBC: "We see wives fainting, ambulances taking them to the hospital, family members holding on to football boots left behind."

Argentine forward Alejandro Martinuccio was one of those who had to stay behind. "I was saved because I got injured," he told Argentina's La Red radio.

"I feel profound sadness. The only thing I can ask is prayers for the companions who were on the flight."

Image copyright Twitter/Chapecoense Image caption The Chapecoense badge has changed from green to black on the club's social media account as a mark of respect

Other sporting plane crashes

September 2011 : 36 players, coaches and officials from Russian ice hockey team Lokomotiv die in a crash north-east of Moscow;

: 36 players, coaches and officials from Russian ice hockey team Lokomotiv die in a crash north-east of Moscow; April 1993 : A crash in Libreville, Gabon, kills 18 players from Zambia's male national football team;

: A crash in Libreville, Gabon, kills 18 players from Zambia's male national football team; October 1972 : Members of a Uruguyan rugby club were among 29 people who died in a crash in the Andes and in the subsequent freezing conditions;

: Members of a Uruguyan rugby club were among 29 people who died in a crash in the Andes and in the subsequent freezing conditions; February 1958: Eight players from English champions Manchester United are among the 29 victims of a crash in Munich

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·Send an SMS or MMS to +44 7624 800 100 </s> ASUNCION, (Reuters) – South American soccer’s governing body CONMEBOL awarded the 2016 Copa Sudamericana championship to Brazil’s Chapecoense club yesterday after most of the team died in a plane crash in Colombia last week.

Only six people survived the crash en route to the final, which killed 71 passengers and crew, shocked football fans worldwide, and plunged Brazil into mourning.

Colombia’s Club Atletica Nacional, which would have played Chapecoense in the biggest game in the club’s history, asked for the trophy to be awarded to the Brazilian team to honor the victims, CONMEBOL said in a statement.

CONMEBOL’s council decided to honor that request with all of the “sport and economic prerogatives that entails,” the statement said. Club Atletico was also given a one-time Fair Play award. As Sudamericana champions, Chapecoense will automatically play Libertadores champions Atletico Nacional for the Recopa Sudamericana next year.

They will also get a guaranteed spot in next year’s Copa Libertadores, South America’s equivalent of the Champions League.

Family and friends donning the team’s green and white colors grieved over 50 caskets flown to Chapeco for an open-air wake in the team’s stadium on Saturday. Chapecoense had ascended in a storybook tale from the minor leagues to reach the final of a major South American tournament.

A BAe146 regional airliner operated by Bolivian charter company LAMIA had radioed that it was running out of fuel before smashing into a hillside outside Medellin, Colombia. </s> Among the 72 passengers and nine crew were members of Chapecoense Real, a Brazilian football club that was supposed to play against Colombia's Atletico Nacional Wednesday in the South American Cup finals.

A plane carrying 81 people, including members of a Brazilian football team, crashed late Monday near the Colombian city of Medellin, officials said.

The airport that serves Medellin said that among the 72 passengers and nine crew were members of Chapecoense Real, a Brazilian football club that was supposed to play against Colombia's Atletico Nacional Wednesday in the South American Cup finals.

"Confirmed, the aircraft license number CP2933 was carrying the team @ChapecoenseReal. Apparently there are survivors," the Jose Maria Cordova de Rionegro airport said on its Twitter account.

The LAMIA aircraft was flying from Bolivia to Medellin when it crashed in an area called Cerro Gordo about 50 kilometers from the city, Colombia's second largest.

"It appears that the plane ran out of fuel," Elkin Ospina, the mayor of the nearby town of La Ceja, told AFP.

He said authorities were on the scene and hospitals and medical centres were preparing to receive the injured.

On its Twitter account, the Medellin airport said the crash site could only be reached overland because of bad weather in the area.

Colombia's civil aeronautics agency said it had a team at the airport in response to the crash. </s> LA UNION, Colombia — Colombia’s worst air crash in two decades snuffed out a storybook run by a Brazilian soccer team, and authorities are digging in trying to figure out why a chartered jetliner crashed in the Andes, killing all but six of the 77 people aboard.

The country’s aviation agency said Tuesday that the British Aerospace 146’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder had been found among the wreckage strewn over a mountainside and were already being studied by experts.

Initially, Colombian officials said the short-haul jet suffered an electrical failure, but there was also heavy rain when the crew declared an emergency and the plane disappeared from radar just before 10 p.m. Monday.

Authorities also said they were not ruling out the possibility the aircraft ran out of fuel minutes before it was to land at Jose Maria Cordova airport outside Medellin, a report given to rescuers by a surviving flight attendant. Officials said they hoped to interview her Wednesday.

Emotional pain resonated across the region over the loss of much of the Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil, which just two years after working its way into Brazil’s top league for the first time in decades had fought its way into the championship of one of South America’s most prestigious tournaments.

The aircraft, which departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was carrying the team to Wednesday’s first game in the two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin. Twenty-one Brazilian journalists were traveling with the team.

South America’s soccer federation canceled all scheduled matches in a show of solidarity, while the Real Madrid and Barcelona clubs interrupted their training sessions for a minute of silence. Brazil’s top teams offered to lend players to the small club for next season as it rebuilds, saying: “It is the minimum gesture of solidarity that is within our reach.”

In a moving gesture, Atletico Nacional asked that the championship title be given to Chapecoense, whose upstart run in the tournament electrified soccer-crazed Brazil.

Three players were among the survivors. Alan Ruschel was reported in the most serious condition, facing surgery for a spinal fracture. Teammates Helio Zampier and Jakson Follmann also suffered multiple trauma injuries, and doctors had to amputate Follmann’s right leg.

A journalist also underwent surgery and two Bolivian crew members were in stable condition, hospital officials said.

The aircraft is owned by LaMia, a charter company that started in Venezuela but later relocated to Bolivia, where it was certified to operate last January. Despite apparently limited experience, the airline has a close relationship with several premier South American soccer squads.

Earlier this month, the plane involved in the crash transported Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and Argentina’s national team from Brazil following a World Cup qualifying match. The airliner also appeared to have transported the national squads of Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela in the last three months, according to a log of recent activity provided by Flightradar24.com.

Before being taken offline, LaMia’s website said it operated three 146 Avro short-haul jets made by British Aerospace, with a maximum range of around 2,965 kilometers (1,600 nautical miles) — about the distance between Santa Cruz and Medellin.

Hans Weber, a longtime adviser to U.S. aviation authorities, said the aircraft’s range deserves careful investigation. He noted that air distance between cities is usually measured by the shortest route but planes rarely fly in a straight line, with pilots steering around turbulence or changing course for other reasons.

Given the model of the plane and the fact that it was flying close to capacity, “I would be concerned that the pilots may have been cutting it too close,” Weber said.

A spokesman for Bolivia’s civil aviation agency, Cesar Torrico, said the plane was inspected before departing for Colombia and no problems were reported.

Gustavo Vargas, a retired Bolivian air force general who is president of the airline, said: “We can’t rule out anything. The investigation is ongoing and we’re going to await the results.”

Moments before the plane took off, the team’s coaching staff gave an interview to a Bolivian television station in which they praised the airline, saying it brought them good fortune when it flew them to Colombia last month for the championship’s quarterfinals, which they won.

“Now we’re going to do this new trip and we hope they bring us good luck like they did the first time,” athletic director Mauro Stumpf told Gigavision TV.

The team, from the small Brazilian city of Chapeco, was having a breakout season. It advanced to the Copa Sudamericana finals after defeating some of the region’s top teams, including Argentina’s San Lorenzo and Independiente.

The Chapecoense club is so modest that tournament organizers ruled its 22,000-seat stadium was too small to host the concluding match of the two-game final and moved it to a stadium 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the city of Curitiba. Some fans in soccer-mad Brazil were so enchanted with its magical run that they started a campaign online to move the final match to Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracana stadium, where the 2014 World Cup final was played.

“This morning I said goodbye to them and they told me they were going after the dream, turning that dream into reality,” Chapecoense board member Plinio De Nes told Brazil’s TV Globo. “The dream was over early this morning.”
Three of Brazil's leading football clubs – Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras and São Paulo FC – offer players to Associação Chapecoense de Futebol after the team loses the majority of its squad in the LaMia Airlines Flight 2933 crash.