In a shocking incident, a chartered aircraft carrying 72 people on board crashed on its way to Medellin's international airport. The passengers included players from a Brazilian soccer team. They were heading to Colombia for a regional tournament final when this mishap took place.

Aviation authorities said, "There are reports of at least six survivors."

A media release from Aeropuerto Internacional José María Córdova (Jose María Cordova International Airport) said, “The Emergency Operations Committee COE and Management Jose Maria Cordova airport reported that at 10:00 pm an aircraft with registration CP2933 from Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, the company LAMIA CORPORATION SRL with Bolivian declared an emergency registration between the municipality of la Ceja and the Union, the aircraft was declared with power failures, as reported to the control tower of the Civil Aeronautics.”

“It is operating immediately COE Emergency Committee was formed with the presence of officials from the Mayor of Rionegro, Airport Police, Colombian Air Force, firefighters Rionegro, authorities and bodies of care and fire and rescue airport group SEI. Police presence ago on the site of the accident which is only accessible by land and climatic conditions are low visibility. The Colombian Air Force made the deployment SAR mission UH60 helicopter FAC 4108, which had to cancel the mission by adverse conditions in place,” added the media release.
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 of the aircraft, a British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, but Colombia had been hit by heavy rains and thunderstorms in recent hours."

Medellin's international airport said, "on its Twitter account that the aircraft had departed from Bolivia."

But local media reported that "the charter aircraft was carrying members of the soccer team Chapecoense from Brazil, which is scheduled to play Copa Sudamerica finals against Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin."

“At the moment it is known that was wrecked in the Cerro Gordo in the municipality of the Union and came 72 passengers and 9 crew football team ChapecoenseReal. According to the authorities to place the national police arrived and is mobilizing all possible help since they are reporting six survivors,” concluded the press release.

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BY M. DIVYA SRI