71 Dead In Plane Crash Carrying Brazilian Soccer Team

A plane carrying players and management of a Brazilian soccer team, has crashed in Colombia, en route to the Medellin international airport.

The plane went down on Tuesday morning (Monday evening local Colombian time) and authorities have since confirmed that of the 77 people on board, 71 have died.

The plane was carrying members of the Brazilian soccer team, Chapecoense.

The plane was also carrying journalists, team management and crew members. Only six people survived the crash, with some sustaining severe injuries and remaining in critical condition in hospital.

Only three of the soccer team’s members survived the crash, the reserve goalie Jakson Follmann, central defender Helio Hermito Zampier Neto and another player, Alan Ruschel. Both are in critical but stable condition.

One crew member has survived the crash, although she is also in critical condition.

The Brazilian president has declared three days of official mourning in the country and thousands of people and other sporting clubs across the world has expressed their utter sadness and shock at the crash.

It is believed that the plane went down due to technical problems. However, investigators have only now started analyzing the plane’s black boxes to determine what caused the aircraft to go down.

The weather was also particularly bad, with torrential rain on the area over the last few days.

The plane went down in a mountainous area, which at first made it hard for rescuers to reach the wreckage.