Brazilian football is in mourning today after a plane carrying 81 passengers, including players and staff from top-tier football club Chapecoense, crashed in Colombia on Monday night, killing 76 people.
The charter plane declared an emergency at 22:00 local time after suffering power failure while flying through a mountainous area before it crashed. Two players are said to be among the five survivors but the majority of the squad were killed on impact.
Chapecoense, a relatively small club founded in 1974, had been in the midst of a fairytale season reminiscent of England’s Leicester City. The team has only been playing in Brazil’s Serie A since 2014, but currently sits ninth ahead of much more famous clubs such as Sao Paulo, Fluminense and Cruzeiro. Last week it became the first Brazilian team in three years to make it to the final of the Copa Sudamericana after beating Argentina’s San Lorenzo.
The fatal journey to Colombia was to be their crowning glory with the team on its way to play the first leg of the finals against Medellin team Atletico Nacional. Only three of the club’s 25-man squad had stayed behind due to injury or suspension, with reports that the flight was carrying, “22 footballers, 28 companion and technical staff, 22 journalists and 9 crew members”.
It also brings back memories of the Munich air disaster of 1958 which killed eight Manchester United players and three staff. While relentless travel is part of the modern game, there have been players over the years that have refused to fly – including Arsenal great Denis Bergkamp.
“They were those nasty little planes that stay in the clouds and shake all the time,” Bergkamp wrote in his autobiography. “When you looked out all you could see was white or grey. And there was hardly any space. It was so cramped it made me claustrophobic. You had absolutely no room to move and you just sat there shaking the entire trip.”
The phobia is no joke anymore. The same small plane that crashed in Brazil this week had carried the Argentina national team to a fixture in Brazil earlier this month and had also previously transported the Venezuela national side. Tragedy now fills the small town Chapecó, where football provided rare joy for its citizens. On Tuesday morning, fans were gathering outside the stadium mourning, crying and comforting each other, while waiting anxiously for news updates. Tragically, the team that could have been champions of the continent have been lost forever.
