WEB DESK /
A chartered aircraft with 81 people on board, including a Brazilian soccer team heading to Colombia for a regional tournament final is reported to have crashed on way to Medellin’s international airport.
The plane was carrying 72 passengers and nine crew members, aviation authorities said in a statement. Local radio said the same aircraft carried Argentina’s national squad for a match earlier this month in Brazil.
Aviation authorities said there are reports of at least six survivors.
“It’s a tragedy of huge proportions,” Mayor Federico Gutierrez of Medillin told Blu Radio.
Aviation authorities said the aircraft, a British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane operated by a Bolivian charter airline named Lamia, declared an emergency at 10 p.m. Monday after experiencing an electrical failure.