Tragedy: A plane carrying 81 people, including members of a Brazilian football team, crashed late Monday near the Colombian city of Medellin, after reporting "electrical failures," officials said. Five people have reportedly survived the crash, including a 25-year-old player Alan Ruschel, a defender on the Brazil team. Reports said 25 bodies have been found.
Members of Chapecoense Real, a Brazilian football club that was supposed to play against Colombia's Atletico Nacional Wednesday in the South American Cup finals, were among the 72 passengers and nine crew members on board, officials said.
"National police have arrived on the scene and all possible aid is being mobilized because six survivors are being reported," the Medellin airport said in a statement.
The LAMIA airlines flight originated in Brazil and had made a stop in Santa Cruz, Bolivia before heading to Colombia.
The airport statement said the plane reported an emergency at 10 pm local time. "It declared it had electrical failures," said an official.
It went down about 50 km from Medellin, Colombia's second largest city, in an area called Cerro Gordo.
Earlier reports had suggested that the plane ran out of fuel.
On its Twitter account, the Medellin airport said the crash site could only be reached overland because of bad weather in the area.
"May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests traveling with our delegation," the Brazil football club said in a brief statement on its Facebook page.
The South American Cup final that was to be played between the Brazil team and Atletico Nacional has been cancelled.
A video published on the team's Facebook page showed the team readying for the flight earlier Monday in Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport.
The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy tale season. It joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals - the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament - after defeating Argentina's San Lorenzo squad.
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