Plane Carrying a Brazilian Soccer Team Crashes in Colombia

BOGOTÁ —A chartered aircraft with 81 people on board, including a Brazilian first division soccer team heading to Colombia for a regional tournament final, crashed on its way to Medellí n's international airport.

Aviation authorities said Tuesday there were reports of at least six survivors.

"It's a tragedy of huge proportions," Medellí n Mayor Federico Gutierrez Gutierrez told Blu Radio on his way to the site of the crash in a mountainous area outside the city.

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 (0300 GMT) due to an electrical failure.

The plane was carrying 72 passengers and nine crew members, aviation authorities said in a statement. Local radio said the same aircraft transported Argentina's national squad for a match earlier this month in Brazil.

Authorities and rescuers were immediately activated but an air force helicopter had to turn back due to low visibility.

The aircraft, which had made a stop in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil. The team was scheduled to play Wednesday in the first of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellí n.

A video published on the team's Facebook page showed the team preparing for the flight earlier Monday at Sã o Paulo's Guarulhos international airport.

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.

Copyright 2016 the Associated Press.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 29, 2016 03:15 ET (08:15 GMT)