Colombia plane crash live: Rescuers find survivors among wreckage

Seven of the 81 on board were pulled out alive - but one later died in hospital

Colombia crash: 76 dead after plane carrying Brazilian football team crashes

Officials say six survivors have been rescued from the wreckage of a chartered plane carrying 81 people, including the squad of a top Brazilian football team, which crashed outside the Colombian city of Medellin.

Latest updates:

• Plane carrying 81 crashes in the mountains
• Plane was carrying team of Chapecoense Real
• 75 people have been killed
• Six people survived
• Authorities investigating whether plane crashed due to electrical failure or ran out of fuel

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The crash occurred amid poor weather conditions as the plane was on its way to the city's international airport, and the country's civil aviation authority said ambulances and emergency workers had arrived at the scene.

Local authorities said there appeared to be survivors, and confirmed the plane was a chartered flight carrying the team of Chapecoense Real for the final of a regional tournament.

The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline named LaMia, declared an emergency at 10pm Monday (0300 GMT) because of an electrical failure.

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

The aircraft, which made a stop in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the first division 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 Medellin.

"May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests traveling with our delegation," the club said in a brief statement on its Facebook page.

South America's soccer federation extended its condolences to the entire Chapecoense community and said its president, Luis Dominguez, was on his way to Medellin. All soccer activities were suspended until further notice, the organisation said in a statement.

[29 November 2016 09:18 · Samuel Osborne]

Colombia's civil aviation authority has said there are six survivors so far: three Chapecoense players, two members of the flight crew and one journalist.

[29 November 2016 09:30 · Samuel Osborne]

Colombian police have said 76 people have died. General Jose Acevedo said 75 died in the crash and one died at hospital.

[29 November 2016 09:32 · Samuel Osborne]

[29 November 2016 10:04 · Samuel Osborne]

Here's video of players from the Chapecoense team celebrating qualifying last week.

[29 November 2016 10:16 · Samuel Osborne]

Here is some background information on the plane, from The Associated Press.

A civilian aviation database website says that the British Aerospace 146 plane that crashed on its approach to the airport in the Colombian city of Medellin made its first flight on March 1999. 

Statistics from planespotters.net show that the regional plane has had several owners since. 

From 1999 to 2007, it was owned by Mesaba Aviation in the US before it was transferred. The plane has been in the hands of Bolivian airline LAMIA since October 2013. 

British Aerospace, which is now known as BAE Systems, says that the first 146 plane took off in 1981 and that just under 400 — including its successor Avro RJ — were built in total in the UK through November 2003. 

It says around 220 of are still in service in a variety of roles, including aerial firefighting and overnight freight services. 

[29 November 2016 10:21 · Samuel Osborne]

The five survivors have been named by Martin Mazur, a journalist reporting for El Grafico.

He says they are the Chapecoense players Alan Ruschel, Marcos Danilo and Jackson Follmann, Brazilian journalist Rafael Henzel and flight crew member Ximena Suarez.

[29 November 2016 10:26 · Samuel Osborne]

Colombian disaster authorities have confirmed three Chapecoense players survived plane crash.

[29 November 2016 10:27 · Samuel Osborne]

Pictures shared on Twitter show the distress of the Chapecoense players who weren't in the squad as they sit in the team's dressing room.

[29 November 2016 10:31 · Samuel Osborne]

Colombian authorities have issued more information on the survivors of the crash that killed 76 people.

The disaster management agency identified the surviving players as Alan Luciano Ruschel, Marcos Danilo Padilha and Jacson Ragnar Follmann.

It said passengers Rafael Correa Gobbato and Ximena Suarez also survived.

All five are being treated at hospitals near the crash site.

[29 November 2016 10:38 · Samuel Osborne]

Brazilian President Michel Temer has offered his sympathy to the family of those killed in the crash.

"I express my solidarity in this sad hour during which tragedy has beset dozens of Brazilian families," he said on Twitter, adding that Brazil's Foreign Ministry and Air Force were working to assist the relatives.

"The government will do all it can to alleviate the pain of the friends and family of sport and national journalism."