Yahoo – AFP,
Rodrigo Almonacid, Dec 1, 2016
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| Rescue teams recover of the bodies from the LAMIA airlines charter flight that crashed in the mountains of Cerro Gordo, municipality of La Union, Colombia, on November 29, 2016 carrying members of the Brazilian football team Chapecoense Real (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda) |
Medellín
(Colombia) (AFP) - The Bolivian charter airline behind a plane crash that
killed 71 people in Colombia was shut down Thursday, as shock grew over a
harrowing recording of the pilot's final minutes without fuel.
Bolivia
said it had suspended charter company LAMIA's permit and ordered an
investigation into its operations.
It also
sacked the executive staff of both the civil aviation authority and the
airports administrator for the duration of the probe.
The government
did not explain the decision.
But it came
as investigators examine pilot error and air traffic control problems as
possible factors in the Monday night crash, which killed most of Brazilian
football club Chapecoense Real and 20 journalists traveling with them to a
championship match.
LAMIA,
which specializes in flying Latin American football teams, has ferried local
clubs and national sides around the region, with players including superstar
Lionel Messi.
Investigators
are trying to piece together the last moments of the doomed flight, which
slammed into the mountains outside Medellin with 77 people on board, six of
whom miraculously survived.
Details of
the jet's terrifying end emerged in an audio recording aired by Colombian media
in which the pilot radioed frantically that he was out of fuel.
In the
recording, pilot Miguel Quiroga contacts the control tower seeking priority to
land.
The
operator tells him he will have to wait seven minutes for another plane to land
first.
"We
have a fuel emergency, ma'am, that's why I am asking you for it at once, full
stop," the pilot replied.
The
timeline was not immediately clear, but shortly after the pilot radioed:
"Ma'am, Lima-Mike-India 2933 is in total failure, total electrical
failure, without fuel."
The
operator responded: "Runway clear and expect rain on the runway
Lima-Mike-India 2933. Firefighters alerted."
The pilot
is heard asking: "Vectors, ma'am, vectors to the runway." Vectors is
the term for the navigation service provided to planes by air traffic control.
The
operator is heard giving him directions, and asking his altitude.
"Nine
thousand feet, ma'am. Vectors! Vectors!"
Those were
Quiroga's last words to the control tower.
 |
Fans of
Brazil's Chapecoense football club take part in a tribute to their players
killed in a plane crash (AFP Photo/DOUGLAS MAGNO)
|
Six-month
wait
Colombia's
civil aeronautics agency said the time sequence of the tape was
"inexact," and had no comment on the content of the recording.
But the
agency's air safety chief, Freddy Bonilla, confirmed at a news conference that
the plane was out of fuel at the moment of impact.
Bonilla
said international rules require aircraft to maintain fuel in reserve when
flying between airports, and that the LAMIA plane had failed to do so.
The British
Aerospace 146 jet was scheduled to make a refueling stop in Bogota, but skipped
the Colombian capital and headed straight for Medellin, reported Bolivian
newspaper Pagina Siete, citing a representative of the airline.
Civil
aviation director Alfredo Bocanegra said it would take investigators at least
six months to analyze the black box recorders recovered from the plane and
reach a conclusion on the cause of the crash.
Bodies
identified
Investigators
finished identifying the victims' bodies Thursday.
A
representative for the funeral homes preparing them said they would be sent
home to Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela and Paraguay late Thursday or early Friday.
Cinderella-story
club Chapecoense had been traveling to what would have been the biggest match
in its history, the finals of South America's second-largest club tournament,
the Copa Sudamericana.
Tearful
tributes to the club were held Wednesday evening, at the time the match was to
have been played, in Medellin and the team's hometown, Chapeco in southern
Brazil.
Both
stadiums were packed to capacity.
Mourners
held candles in the air in Chapeco as the handful of remaining players from the
team took to the pitch in tears.
A minute's
silence for Chapecoense will be held before every Champions League and Europa
League game next week, UEFA said Thursday.
 |
People
participate in a tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense
killed in
a plane crash in the Colombian mountains (AFP Photo/LUIS ACOSTA)
|
Caring
for survivors
Six people
survived the crash.
Bolivian
crew members Ximena Suarez and Erwin Tumiri are expected to be released from
hospital Thursday, an official said.
Chapecoense
defender Alan Ruschel was in critical but stable condition in intensive care
after having back surgery.
Journalist
Rafael Henzel and player Helio Neto were listed as stable.
Goalkeeper
Jakson Follmann was meanwhile set to undergo surgery again, after having his
right leg amputated.
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