It is indeed a black day for football fans as a plane carrying a Brazilian football team crashed in the Colombian mountains as per the officials on Tuesday, Nov, 29. Seventy-one people were killed and six survived as per the final statement released by the concerned authorities. The tea was on its way to play in the finals of Copa Sudamericana which is South Americas second biggest club tournament when this accident took place.
As per the reports, the plane slammed into a mountainside near Medellin on Monday night as the team flew to face Atletico Nacional for their match. It was Colombia’s worst air disaster in two decades and there were only six survivors.
Club vice-president Ivan Tozzo told Globo SportTV. 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,” “It is very difficult a very great tragedy.”
Colombia’s disaster management agency, UNGRD, said in a statement. “Search and rescue operations found 71 victims and six survivors.” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in a televised address. “Investigations are proceeding into the exact circumstances and possible causes of this sad tragedy,”
German Lopez, 44, who grow flowers on the mountain range and could see the white wreckage from his kitchen said “We felt a loud, strong thud,” “We ran to search for survivors. I saw someone die on a stretcher but helped save someone who was unconscious. I started to cry. I didn’t want my home known for this.”
Jean Panegalli, 17, a student in Chapeco, where fans were disconsolate said, “They were the hope of our city,”They played for the love of the shirt and not for money. They played with the commitment that only those who have lived here know.”
The cup final first-leg had been scheduled for Wednesday against Atletico Nacional of Colombia.
In an emotional gesture, Nacional called in a statement for the title to be handed to its Brazilian opponents in tribute.
It asked of CONMEBOL “that the Copa Sudamericana title is handed to Chapecoense Football Association as an honorary trophy for its great loss, and as a posthumous homage to the victims of the fatal accident that has put our sport in mourning.”
A three-day mourning has been declared for the victims by Brazil’s President Michel Temer. As per reports top Brazilian clubs have offered to loan their players to Chapecoense for free.
