Plane carrying Brazilian football team crashes •76 dead and 5 survivors

The British Aerospace 146 jet was carrying 81 people – passengers and crew – and reportedly split into two when it crashed at around 10.15pm local time

A plane carrying the Brazilian football team Chapecoense has crashed in Colombia.

Flight CP 2933 was transporting players to Medellin airport when it disappeared off radar and crashed into countryside.

The British Aerospace 146 jet was carrying 81 people – passengers and crew – and reportedly split into two when it crashed at around 10.15pm local time.

Defender Alan Ruschel, goalkeepers Danilo and Jackson Follman and an air stewardess called Ximena Suárez have all survived.

Search teams have been working to pull survivors from the wreckage, but the search was suspended due to heavy rain.

The Mirror’s associate editor Kevin Maguire is in Colombia where the plane crash has killed 76.

Electrical or mechanical faults are being blamed for the incident after the CP2293 plane was downed.

But strong turbulence and thunderstorms were also present in the area.

He reports: “In Colombia, electrical or mechanical faults are being blamed although there was turbulence and thunderstorms in the mountainous region.

“Debris with the logo of the Brazilian side Chapeconse was photographed at the crash site.

“The team, ninth in Brazil’s Serie A, was enjoying a fairytale season, and the unfashionable club’s semi final first leg in South America’s equivalent of the Europa League was billed as a David V Goliath clash with Medellin’s Atletico Nacional.”

The plane was “5 minutes from landing”

The doomed plane was five minutes from reaching its destination before it crashed, according to reports.

Local radio said the team were due to stay at the four-star Hotel San Fernando, an elegant hotel near Medellin’s Botanical Garden.

Most of the 72 passengers were Brazilian.Around 40 were part of the Chapecoense delegation.They included 20 players, the manager Caio Junior and four other members of his coaching team including an assistant manager, a personal trainer, a kinesiologist and a masseur who is said to be among the survivors.

Aviation authorities – “three are alive”

The aviation authorities has only confirmed that three people were “rescued alive”.

Earlier reports suggested that there were six survivors from the crash.

Then, it was reported that one of the survivors died on the way to hospital.

The Aeronautica Civil agency has now stated that three are definitely alive.

Reports suggest that the surviving passengers are an air stewardess and two players.

Chapecoense defender Alan Ruschel is in a “stable” condition.

Alan Ruschel, who published a video on board a plane as the Brazilian side left Sao Paulo, is one of the survivors and is currently being attended to in a local hospital.

“Of Alan Ruschel we don’t have a definitive diagnosis yet,” said the director of the San Juan de Dios Hospital.

“They are waiting on some lab results to decide how to continue. He is stable.”