Colombian Authorities Identify All 71 People Killed in Monday's Plane Crash
December 01 2016 - 12:06PM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Schaefer Muñoz in Medellín, Colombia and Paul Kiernan in Rio de Janeiro
Colombian authorities on Thursday said they have positively
identified all 71 people killed in Monday's crash of a LaMia
airlines flight outside Medellín that all but wiped out a Brazilian
soccer team.
"This morning we can say we have been able to identify all of
the victims," said Juan David Arteaga, secretary of social
protection for Antioquia, the Colombian state where the accident
took place.
He said that 64 of the passengers who perished were Brazilian,
five were Bolivian, one was Paraguayan and one was Venezuelan.
Authorities from those countries will now begin repatriating the
remains, Colombian officials said.
The flight went down carrying its crew, journalists and the
Associação Chapecoense de Futebol, which was traveling to the
finals of the Copa Sudamericana tournament.
Six people survived the crash, including three Chapecoense
players.
Civil aviation authorities on Wednesday had said the Avro RJ85
aircraft, owned by the Bolivian airline was out of fuel when it
crashed toward the end of its cross-continental trip from Bolivia
to Colombia. The Avro RJ85 was built by a predecessor of BAE
Systems PLC.
"We can clearly affirm that the plane did not have fuel at the
moment of impact," Freddy Bonilla, Colombia's secretary of air
security, said.
Mr. Bonilla said the plane, which went down in the mountains
outside Medellin's international airport on Monday night, had been
in violation of international and local regulations that require
planes to carry reserve fuel between airports.
Bolivia's civil aviation director of operations, Miguel Patino,
said Bolivia's airport authority Aasana is responsible for
approving flight plans. An Aasana spokesman couldn't be reached for
comment. Multiple calls were placed to LaMia's offices in Santa
Cruz, Bolivia, with no answer.
The Chapecoense team, a scrappy underdog that was on its way to
compete in its first international finals match, was scheduled to
play against Atlético Nacional of Medellín on Wednesday
evening.
Tens of thousands of fans and mourners packed the Atanasio
Girardot soccer stadium on Wednesday night, singing, lighting
candles and listening to tributes by members of the Colombian team
that had planned to face off against the Chapecoenses in the
final.
Meanwhile, air-accident investigators said they are also looking
into why a relatively short-range aircraft made the
transcontinental trip between Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and
Medellín.
The distance between the two airports, according to website
Great Circle Mapper, is 1,839 miles. The Avro RJ85's maximum range
with a full tank of fuel is 1,842 miles, according to a fact sheet
on Airliners.net. Aviation experts say fuel consumption can be
influenced by several factors, including winds aloft and the weight
the aircraft is carrying.
Mr. Bonilla and the head of Colombia's civil aviation authority,
Alfredo Bocanegra, said the flight plan of the doomed airliner,
which was approved by Bolivian authorities, was direct and didn't
include a stop to refuel.
--Andy Pasztor in Los Angeles contributed to this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 01, 2016 11:51 ET (16:51 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Bae Systems (PK) (USOTC:BAESY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2024 to Oct 2024
Bae Systems (PK) (USOTC:BAESY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2023 to Oct 2024