- Title: Colombian plane crash victims boarded onto Brazilian military plane
- Date: 2nd December 2016
- Summary: RIONEGRO, COLOMBIA (DECEMBER 2, 2016) (REUTERS) SOLDIERS ESCORTING COFFINS ONTO BRAZILIAN MILITARY PLANE GENERAL OF SOLDIERS NEXT TO COFFINS BEFORE BOARDING THEM MORE OF COFFINS BEING BOARDED ONTO PLANE REPORTERS ON TARMAC MORE OF COFFINS BEING BOARDED ONTO PLANE PLANE ON TARMAC MORE OF COFFINS BOARDED ONTO PLANE PAN OUT OF PLANE ON TARMAC PLANE BEGINNING TO TAXI PLANE TAKING OFF
- Embargoed: 17th December 2016 21:58
- Keywords: Chapeco Chapecoense Medellin crash
- Location: RIONEGRO, COLOMBIA
- City: RIONEGRO, COLOMBIA
- Country: Colombia
- Reuters ID: LVA0015B718HZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Dozens of coffins carrying those killed when a plane flying Brazil's Chapecoense soccer team crashed into a Colombian mountain were loaded onto Brazilian air force planes for their final journey home on Friday (December 2).
The disaster on Monday killed 71 people and shocked soccer fans the world over. The LAMIA Bolivia BAe146 airliner apparently ran out of fuel, lost electrical power and was preparing for an emergency landing when it crashed.
Only six people survived, including three members of the soccer squad en route to the Copa Sudamericana final, the biggest game in its history.
The tragedy plunged Latin America's largest nation, Brazil, into mourning as it reels from a deep recession and political crisis.
A convoy carrying the 64 dead Brazilians made its way from a funeral home in the Colombian city of Medellin to Rionegro airport, where coffins were solemnly accompanied into the bellies of the planes by a military honor guard.
The remains are scheduled to arrive early on Saturday morning for funeral services in Chapeco, the club's small farming hometown in southern Brazil.
Temporary structures in the team's stadium will shelter the coffins of players, staff and journalists for an open-air wake.
Some 100,000 fans, about half the city's population, are likely to attend, as is Gianni Infantino, president of world soccer governing body FIFA. Brazilian President Michel Temer will attend a ceremony at the airport after the coffins arrive, but he will not be at the wake in the stadium, his office said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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