Plane carrying football team from Brazil crashes in Colombia

Players from Brazil’s Chapecoense and journalists among the dead as five people survive air disaster.

Only five people survived when a charter plane en route to Colombia went down in the mountains [Luis Noriega/EPA]

A plane carrying players from a Brazilian football team headed to Colombia for a regional tournament final, has crashed on its way to Medellin’s airport, killing at least 76 people.

Police officials said that five passengers had survived, one died in hospital and that the rest of the passengers were killed in the crash.

Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Bogota, said the flight crashed in a mountainous region.

“There have been heavy rains day in and day out in the last week or so,” he said. “That could have played a big role in the crash, but that is still unconfirmed.”

Medillin’s Mayor Federico Gutierrez said he was on his way to the region where the chartered aircraft was believed to have crashed shortly before midnight local time.

“It’s a tragedy of huge proportions,” he told Blu Radio.

It was not clear what caused the British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane to crash, but, as reported by Rampietti, Colombia had been hit by heavy rains and thunderstorms in recent hours.

Data from the FlightRadar24.com website showed the plane circling before eventually disappearing south of Rio Negro. Medellin’s airport confirmed that the aircraft, which made a stop in Bolivia, was transporting the first division Chapecoense team from southern Brazil.

The team was scheduled to play on Wednesday in the first of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin.

‘Completely devastated’

Al Jazeera’s Monica Villamizar, reporting from Brazil’s Sau Paolo, said the country was “completely devastated”.

“This team in particular had been a miracle team,” she said. “The mood has changed from total celebration – to the fact that the team was in the finals – to total sadness here hearing the news of the crash.”

A video published on the team’s Facebook page showed players, filled with enthusiasm, preparing for the flight earlier on Monday in Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport.

The sister of defender Alan Ruschel, who local media reported was the first survivor taken to hospital, tweeted her relief.

“I love you BRO. You’re a warrior!” she said.

Ruschel had earlier posted images of his journey to Colombia on his Instagram account , including a photograph of he and his teammates onboard the plane.

Local reports said that goalkeeper  Marcos Danilo Padilha was another of the survivors, along with an unnamed air stewardess and a journalist.

After the incident, the team published an update on Facebook in which it said players, staff, journalists and guests were among those travelling with the club on the plane.

The team, from the small city of Chapeco, joined Brazil’s first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it to the Copa Sudamericana finals last week by defeating Argentina’s legendary San Lorenzo squad.

Al Jazeera senior sports presenter Andy Richardson described the team as “a rare model of organisational success” that was “lauded as an example of how to run a club”.

He added: “They were seen as a real success story of the last three or four years in Brazilian football.”

In a statement released on Tuesday, CONMEBOL, the South American Football Federation, announced it had suspended all activities until further notice.

After news of the disaster broke, tributes poured in from the football community with teams and players from across the world offering condolences and tributes.

“Sad news to wake up to today,” Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney tweeted.