A charter flight carrying the Chapecoense football squad crashed near Medellín in 2016, killing 71 of 77 aboard due to fuel exhaustion and pilot error.
Key Facts
- Date of crash
- 28 November 2016
- Deaths
- 71 people
- Survivors
- 6 people
- Aircraft type
- Avro RJ85
- Distance from airport at flame-out
- 18 kilometres
- Delay in declaring emergency
- 36 minutes
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
LaMia airline filed an inappropriate flight plan that left insufficient fuel reserves for the journey from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, to Medellín, Colombia. The pilot compounded the situation through poor decision-making, including a failure to declare an emergency for 36 minutes after fuel levels became critically low, preventing air traffic control from prioritising an immediate landing.
On 28 November 2016, an Avro RJ85 operated by LaMia and carrying the Chapecoense football club's first-team squad crashed near Medellín. The aircraft's fuel-starved engines flamed out approximately 18 kilometres from the airport. Of the 77 people on board — players, staff, and crew — 71 were killed. Six survived with injuries.
Colombia's civil aviation agency Aerocivil attributed the crash to fuel exhaustion and pilot error. The disaster devastated the Chapecoense club, wiping out most of its first-team squad ahead of the 2016 Copa Sudamericana Finals, and prompted scrutiny of charter airline safety standards and flight planning regulations in South America.