According to Time Magazine, the 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.
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 Bolivian Civil Aviation Authority announced it had indefinitely halted all flights operated by LaMia and also was suspending some aviation officials during the investigation.
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Associated Press photographer Fernando Vergara reported this story in Medellin and AP writer Hannah Dreier reported from Caracas, Venezuela. AP writer Cesar Garcia in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.
