Brazilian Soccer Team Bahia Victims of Bus Bombing; Danilo Fernandes Hospitalized
Feb 25, 2022
Brazil's Ceara coach Guto Ferreira gestures during the Copa Sudamericana football tournament group stage match against Bolivia's Jorge Wilstermann at the Felix Capriles stadium in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on May 27, 2021. (Photo by AIZAR RALDES / AFP) (Photo by AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images)
A bomb detonated inside a bus carrying
Brazilian soccer team Bahia ahead of Thursday night's 2022 Copa do
Nordeste match against Sampaio Correa.
Freddie Keighley of the Daily Mirror
reported Friday goalkeeper Danilo Fernandes required an overnight
hospital stay after being struck by shrapnel.
"Danilo Fernandes is fine, but
will spend the night in the hospital," the club said. "The goalkeeper had multiple injuries to his face,
neck and lower limbs, which had to be sutured, and will be under
observation for further examinations and an ophthalmologist's
evaluation, as there is a cut near the eye."
Bahia scored a 2-0 win after the match moved forward as scheduled despite the attack.
Daniel and Hugo Rodallega scored for
Bahia, the competition's defending champions. The match took place at
Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, Brazil.
Marca reported the club's own fans are
among the suspects in the case amid frustration about the team's
results, which includes being relegated to the second division last
year.
"We will collect footage,
statements from players and witnesses that were on the spot at that
moment. We will use our maximum capabilities to identify and arrest
the perpetrators," police investigator Victor Spinola said.
Bahia manager Guto Ferreira also
responded to reports of the attack coming from Tricolor fans, per Marca.
"This is stupid, people believe
such moves will intimidate an athlete, making him perform,"
Ferreira said. "It always the coach that is bad, the player is
bad. That's not how you solve problems."
Bahia's next match is scheduled for
Sunday when they take on Juazeirense in the Campeonato Baiano.
Chapecoense Suffer 1st Relegation 3 Years on from Plane Crash That Killed 71
Nov 28, 2019
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - OCTOBER 16: Douglas of Chapecoense reacts after the first goal of Felipe Melo of Palmeiras (not inf frame) during a match between Palmeiras and Chapecoense for the Brasileirao Series A 2019 at Allianz Parque on October 16, 2019 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Miguel Schincariol/Getty Images)
Chapecoense have been relegated to the second tier of Brazilian football almost three years to the day since the plane crash that killed 19 of their players.
They lost 1-0 at home to Botafogo in the Brasileirao on Wednesday to drop nine points from safety with three games of the 2019 season remaining:
After 6 extraordinary years in Serie A, Chapecoense have been sadly relegated. Tomorrow marks the third anniversary of the crash that almost wiped them out. Such a spirited club, good people and great fans, I hope to see them back on top again soon. VamosChape 💚
They could theoretically still tie on points with Ceara, who sit in 16th place. But the first tiebreaker in the Brazilian top flight is games won.
Ceara currently have 10 victories this term, and Chapecoense would only reach nine if they won their last three matches.
It is Chapecoense's first relegation from Brazil's top tier and marks the end of a six-year spell for the club in the Brasileirao.
On November 28, 2016, a plane crash near Medellin, Colombia, killed 19 Chapecoense players, as well as numerous members of the coaching staff and accompanying journalists.
Only six of the 77 passengers on board survived.
The team were travelling to take part in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional, the culmination of a remarkable ascent for Chapecoense, having risen from outside Brazil's four national divisions to the top tier and continental recognition inside a decade.
They were subsequently awarded the Copa Sudamericana title by CONMEBOL at the request of Nacional:
The club rejected the proposal of protection from relegation for a three-year period and avoided the drop in the 2017 campaign after other clubs loaned them players for free.
In 2018, after many loanees returned to their clubs and the departures of other players, Chapecoense finished 14th, just two points above the relegation zone.
After their relegation was confirmed on Wednesday, captain Douglas said, per Adriana Garcia of ESPN FC:
"It's a delicate moment, difficult to find words in this situation. We players are very sorry to leave Chapecoense in this situation, but Chapecoense has always shown unity.
"I think this is the time for the whole community to unite again, rearrange things, leave everything on track for Chapecoense to return to Serie A, which is the club's place, and continue to build this beautiful story."
Dani Alves Joins Sao Paulo on Free Transfer After Leaving PSG
Aug 2, 2019
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - JULY 07: Dani Alves of Brazil lifts the trophy following the Copa America Brazil 2019 Final match between Brazil and Peru at Maracana Stadium on July 07, 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
Former Barcelona full-back Dani Alves has joined Sao Paulo on a free transfer after his contract with Paris Saint-Germain expired at the end of June.
The 36-year-old told reporters: "I could have chosen anywhere to play, but I chose to return to Brazil."
The 115-times capped Brazil international recently captained his country to the 2019 Copa America title as hosts, where he was also voted the tournament's best player.
FIFA confirmed Alves will wear No. 10 at the Estadio do Morumbi:
Sao Paulo have a 🆕 wingback Sao Paulo have a new No🔟
🇧🇷 Dani Alves, fresh from being named the best player at the @CopaAmerica, is both.
The transfer also brought an end to Alves' 17-year career in European football, having joined Sevilla from his first professional club, Bahia, in 2002, per Goal:
Alves has signed a contract that will keep him in Sao Paulo until the end of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which is scheduled to finish in December of that year.
Sao Paulo have a history of selling and acquiring big names to and from Europe:
Alves played only a season-and-a-half with Bahia before Sevilla recruited him, meaning this move gives the defender a second chance to impress in front of his native supporters.
The veteran has won major titles with almost every team he's played for. Alves left Barcelona for Juventus in 2016 and joined PSG one year later, winning La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 titles back-to-back.
TalkSport reported his trophy count stands at 43 and makes him the most decorated player in history.
Alves will join ex-Brazil star Alexandre Pato and former Juventus team-mate Hernanes at the Estadio do Morumbi.
Sao Paulo are fifth in the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A table and eight points off leaders Santos.
Chapecoense Plane Crash Survivor Rafael Henzel Dies of Heart Attack Aged 45
Mar 27, 2019
Brazilian journalist Rafael Henzel (C), one of the survivors of the air crash in which most of the Chapecoense football team died in Colombia last November, is interviewed by AFP before the presentation of his book in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 20, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Tercio Teixeira (Photo credit should read TERCIO TEIXEIRA/AFP/Getty Images)
Radio reporter Rafael Henzel, who was one of six survivors of the 2016 plane crash that killed many members of the Chapecoense football team and 71 people in total, died on Tuesday aged 45 after suffering a heart attack.
Reuters' Andrew Downie (h/t Channel News Asia) relayed the news from the Brazilian club:
Per Globo (h/t Downie), Henzel was taken to hospital after he collapsed while playing football in Chapeco and died shortly after his arrival.
In a statement, Chapecoense paid tribute to Henzel: "Throughout his brilliant career, Rafael told the story of Chapecoense. He was a symbol of the club's reconstruction and he will always be remembered in the green and white pages of this institution."
So too did La Liga club Athletic Bilbao:
Athletic Club offers its sincere condolences for the sudden death of the journalist Rafael Henzel, who recently participated in Thinking Football as a survivor of the plane crash of #Chapecoense and protagonist of the film Nossa Chape, which has won the contest pic.twitter.com/9K24DmVKkN
Chapecoense are due to play Criciuma in the Copa do Brasil on Wednesday, but they have asked the Brazilian Football Confederation to play the match on Thursday instead following Henzel's death, per Sport's Juan G. Arango.
In November 2016, a plane carrying 77 people—including the Chapecoense team, staff and 21 journalists—crashed on the way to Medellin, Colombia, where the club were due to compete in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional.
Only six survived, including Henzel and three Chapecoense players.
Flamengo CEO Reinaldo Belotti: Deadly Fire Caused by Electricity Spike
Feb 9, 2019
Flowers are seen on a flag of Brazilian football club Flamengo at the entrance of its training center, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on February 8, 2019, after a deadly fire. - Fire swept through a training facility for Brazil's most popular football club Flamengo Friday, killing at least 10 people, authorities said. (Photo by CARL DE SOUZA / AFP) (Photo credit should read CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)
Flamengo CEO Reinaldo Belotti has said the fire that killed 10 young players at the club's training ground on Friday was caused by an electricity spike that sparked a fire in an air conditioning unit.
Per Reuters (h/t ESPN), the fire followed a storm over Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday night that killed at least six people.
Belotti attributed the electricity spike to the weather: "It was a succession of events after a catastrophic day for Rio that led to this even greater catastrophe."
The fire burned through a dormitory at the Urubu's Nest training ground, where the club's youth players slept:
BRAZIL: At least 10 people died in a fire at the training complex of Flamengo Football Club in Rio, firefighters say pic.twitter.com/QeNpgPVfQm
Following the fire, the mayor's office for Rio said the club had been told to close down the dorm"almost 30 times" because the area it was built on was registered as a parking lot, but Belotti dismissed that issue as a contributing factor:
"This area was well known to everyone, It was comfortable and adequate. We were proud of it. The truth is that it was a tragic accident. It was not because of a lack of investment by Flamengo. It was not because Flamengo did not take care."
All of the victims have been identified and were aged between 14 and 17 years old.
A club supporters group paid tribute to those killed:
Three others were hospitalised—one in "serious condition"—while 10 other teenagers escaped unharmed. One boy recounted that he woke in the early hours of Friday morning to discover his air conditioning unit was aflame.
Flamengo were scheduled to host Fluminense in the semi-final of the Taca Guanabara on Saturday, but the match has been moved to Thursday.
Fire Kills 10 at Flamengo Training Ground in Rio de Janeiro
Feb 8, 2019
flag of CR Flamengo during the Florida Cup 2019 match between Ajax Amsterdam v Clube de Regatas do Flamengo at Orlando City Stadium on January 10, 2019 in Orlando, United States(Photo by VI Images via Getty Images)
A fire at Flamengo's training complex in Rio de Janeiro has killed 10 people.
According to Adam Forrest of The Independent, firefighters have confirmed at least three people have also been injured after the blaze broke out early Friday morning at the Urubu's Nest training centre. It was extinguished after burning for over two hours.
Per BBC News, the victims have yet to be identified, but a dormitory used by youth players aged between 14 and 17 was engulfed by the flames while the players were asleep.
Brazilian news outlet G1 provided an image showing the effects of the fire:
Brazil legend and former Flamengo player Zico posted a message on his Instagram page in the wake of the tragedy, per Eurosport: "What a shock getting this news here on the other side of the world," the former Brazil midfielder wrote. "May the Red-and-Black nation have strength and faith to get through this moment."
Real Madrid attacker Vinicius Junior, who moved to the Santiago Bernabeu from Flamengo last summer, also took to social media to offer his condolences: "What sad News! Praying for everyone! Strength, strength, strength."
Que notícia triste! Oremos por todos! Força, força e força 😢
Flamengo, five-time champions of Brazil, finished runners-up in the Brasileiro last season.
The 2019 league campaign does not get under way until April, but Flamengo are scheduled to face Fluminense on Saturday in the semi-finals of the Taca Guanabara.
Confusion, Chaos, Survival—How Chapecoense Are Coping 2 Years on from Tragedy
Dec 6, 2018
Supporters of Brazilian Chapecoense cheer for their team during their 2017 Copa Sudamericana football match against Argentina's Defensa y Justicia held at Arena Conda stadium, in Chapeco, Brazil, on July 25, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / NELSON ALMEIDA (Photo credit should read NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)
"If you believe in some power that can guide Chapecoense this afternoon, now is the time to appeal to it," Rafael Henzel asked fans from his radio booth.
As Chapecoense went into Sunday's final round of the Brazilian Serie A season fighting to avoid relegation for the first time since they earned promotion in 2013, a record crowd of 19,992 headed to Arena Conda for the decisive game against Sao Paulo. It was the equivalent of one of every 10 people from Chapeco, a small agricultural city in southern Brazil, deciding to attend the match.
Many of them were wearing earpieces so they could hear Henzel, the club's favourite match commentator, call the game for Oeste Capital radio.
The atmosphere was incredible.
While Henzel spoke about faith in the moments prior to kick-off, he was aware that Chapecoense had not been as close to the drop since their promotion. The club, once dubbed the Brazilian version of Leicester City for their overachievements, were only one point above the relegation zone after struggling to find their best form throughout the season.
But the 45-year-old announcer was not the type of man to lose faith in the side's chances of securing another season in Brazil's top flight.
Henzel is a miracle himself.
Brazilian journalist Rafael Henzel (C), one of the survivors of the air crash in which most of the Chapecoense football team died in Colombia last November, is interviewed by AFP before the presentation of his book in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 20, 2
He is one of the six survivors of the tragedy that devastated Chapecoense in 2016, after 71 people, including 19 players, died in a plane crash en route to the final of the Copa Sudamericana in Medellin, Colombia.
When he woke up on Sunday to prepare for the final fixture of the season, he knew it would be an emotional day that would stir up recent memories.
"It's impossible to forget that nearly two years ago the coffins of our friends were being brought into Arena Conda for fans to pay tribute to them in a ceremony," Henzel told Bleacher Report.
The Sao Paulo match—a fixture that local newspaper Diario do Iguacuhad dubbed "the most important game of Chapecoense's history"—was being held on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the memorial services held at Chape's stadium back in 2016.
Back then, Henzel had not been released from a hospital in Colombia. He still had a tube down his throat and was sedated after breaking seven ribs in the crash. It would only be later that he learned about the caskets being carried on to the pitch for the wake.
On Sunday, though, he was back at work. Climbing those familiar stairs to take his place in the press box and begin broadcasting a full 90 minutes before the kick-off. However, this time, instead of 50 bodies on the pitch, he had 11 footballers wearing green and white colors, running to show the surviving spirit remains at the club.
Being relegated to the Brazilian Serie B would have been seriously problematic for Chapecoense's future.
Chape, as the club is affectionately known, have had 54 lawsuits brought against them by families of the victims. They have already reached a deal to settle eight of the compensation cases—arranging for the payments to be made in installments over a period of five to 10 years.
The legal battle is far from finished, however, and since August, fearing a possible relegation, the club has postponed reaching new agreements until they had clarity on their future.
For the Santa Catarina-based side, going down to the second division would mean watching their annual broadcasting rights revenue, the largest source of income for the club, drop from R$28 million (£5.7 million) to R$7 million (£1.43 million) and make it near impossible to honor similar settlements to those already agreed.
Rescue teams work in the recovery of the bodies of victims of the LAMIA airlines charter that crashed in the mountains of Cerro Gordo, municipality of La Union, Colombia, on November 29, 2016 carrying members of the Brazilian football team Chapecoense Rea
The financial concern was so big over the course of the season that the footballers even discussed it inside the dressing room.
"We have talked about this situation—how important the first division survival would be for everyone," says Douglas, one of Chapecoense's captains. "The club is being rebuilt almost from the scratch. We are aware that so many people and families rely on our work to move on with their lives. From the first day, it has always been our main goal to remain in the Serie A. Fighting to the end is part of our DNA and will forever be."
Not many people expected the uncertainty to go on until the last round of games, though. Results in the previous season had set the bar higher than the team could sustain after all it went through.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - SEPTEMBER 30: Alan Ruschel of Chapecoense reacts during the match between Vasco da Gama and Chapecoense as part of Brasileirao Series A 2017 at Sao Januario Stadium on September 30, 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Alexan
In 2017, a few months after the plane crash, Chapecoense surprised rivals to sit top of the table for the first time in their history. It seemed inevitable that the initial sprint would not endure, and a midseason slump saw them fall down the table, but they still managed to finish in eighth, their best-ever position, and secure a spot in the Copa Libertadores.
It was another remarkable success story for Chapecoense, a club that went from the fourth tier to the elite in just five seasons, but the cracks finally started to show this campaign.
"I've got the impression that last year the players played for the cause," explainsHenzel. "Chape was recovering from a tragedy, did not have a squad and had to reconstruct the team with loan players.
"Although they were not emotionally connected with the city, it was possible to see they wanted to honor the memories of those who had died.
"I could not recognise the same this season—it looked more like a random team than one who was continuing the rebuilding work."
Former Chapecoense marketing executive Andrei Copetti says bringing in more expensive footballers also failed to pay off and instead created a distance between the club and the fans.
"When we gained popularity across the country, Bruno Rangel [one of the players who died in the crash] had the biggest salary at the club, around R$120,000 (£24,495) monthly,"Copettitells B/R. "He was revered in the whole city. Nowadays, we're paying R$200,000 (£40,826) for some players, with no criteria.
"Chapecoense has lost its essence."
Besides that, it has also been chaotic off the field, with three different coaches (Gilson Kleina, Guto Ferreira and Claudinei Oliveira) taking over during the season, high-ranking directors (Rui Costa and Joao Carlos Maringa) being dismissed and president Plinio David de Nes Filho embroiled in a controversy over a proposed bonus payment for Chapecoense finishing second in the Santa Catarina Championship.
Amid this confusion, the footballers still have to cope with the pressure of replacing names such as Danilo, Cleber Santana and Kempes, who lost their lives in the disaster.
Even for an experienced player like Artur Moraes, that proved a tough ask. The goalkeeper, who played for big clubs like AS Roma, Benfica and Cruzeiro during his career, was part of Chape's rebuilt 2017 squad.
"Being compared to those heroes was something very hard to handle," Moraes admits.
"Perhaps not handle, I mean, but to deal with—it's inhuman because you will never be able to take their places—and most importantly, you don't even want that. They're irreplaceable and will forever be remembered. It's impossible to fill the vacuum in the fans' hearts.
"Nevertheless, it was a very heavy comparison for me and took me some time to understand the supporters. But after three months, I realised I had no other choice. Our main legacy was the respect we showed to the families and people who went through the tragedy while encouraging them to continue."
Despite the rebuild still being a work in progress, rows and lawsuits with relatives of the plane crash victims have seen Chapecoense lose their spot as the second team in the hearts of many fans in Brazil.
However, they can still rely on their loyal fans to make sure the surviving spirit keeps pushing them ahead.
"The atmosphere of the weekend's game reminded me a lot of the one we had on November 23, 2016, when the goalkeeper Danilo made a brilliant save in the end of the semi-final against San Lorenzo to confirm the 0-0 draw and our place in the final of the Copa Sudamericana," Henzel recalls.
The noise in the ground went a long way toward explaining how the small-town club beat Sao Paulo 1-0 to secure a spot in the first division for the sixth season in a row.
As the referee blew the final whistle, wild celebrations took over the Arena Conda.
Henzel could not contain himself in the press box and cried while repeating several times that Chapecoense "could never be relegated to the second tier."
At the same time, two other survivors of the crash—Alan Ruschel, who played 18 times this season after an eight-month recovery process, and Jakson Follmann, a former goalkeeper who has a prosthetic leg and now works as an ambassador of the club—went around the pitch on a golf buggy, carrying Chapecoense's flag.
The trio demonstrates that, despite the confusion off the field, the fairytale story of the Brazilian club is still open for new chapters.
A Year Later, Questions and Hurt Remain from Chapecoense Tragedy
Nov 27, 2017
There was a pause, but the moment needn't have lingered. The realisation and choking frustration was immediate.
Matheus Saroli was heading down in the elevator of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil, when his father broke the good news: a plane ticket to Colombia, meaning he'd now take his place at the big game. However, Saroli had arrived in the city on an internal flight.
"Where's your passport?" came the question. Before it was out, they both knew the answer.
"I don't have it," he said. "You told me the whole time I can't go."
Delirium to disaster. At least that ought to have been the lasting emotion. Yet, with neither the expectation nor the need, brutal perspective was creeping closer.
Saroli idolised his dad, and it was easy to see why. Caio Junior had been a decent professional footballer, but he was a better manager. His CV was dotted with some of the biggest clubs in Brazil. After a stint working away in Dubai, he and his family decided in mid-2016 that home mattered most and agreed he should take on a project.
In a nation where a few bad results often see chairmen burn down the house to get the flies out of the kitchen, the small southern city of Chapeco was somewhere he could take time, test himself and try to build something special.
It turns out he didn't need much time. In his first handful of months, the local club got past relative behemoths such as Independiente, Atletico Junior and San Lorenzo and into the final of the Copa Sudamericana.
But while Saroli had been to many games—he was in Sao Paulo for a Brazilian top-flight clash and had shared a hotel room with his father—continental ties had meant chartered planes. To save it getting messy, Caio Junior had stopped the families of the team from boarding. As if a test, that included his own.
"Monday morning, I wake and am in a hurry because I've to go to the other airport, not the international one, to fly home," Saroli says. "Then my dad tells me, 'Look, the flight changed. Now you can go. The first part is commercial.'
"I was so excited, and then, that 15 seconds we were in the lift. ... The situation was I didn't actually need a passport for Colombia, but he'd never been, so he didn't know that. But that was it. If we had the conversation a minute later, I would have gone."
A few days later, Saroli was in Chapecoense's stadium next to his mother as the coffins were brought in one by one and marched around the field.
"The day was horrible," he recalls as rain fell like tears. "We were in a box on one side of the ground, and the bodies were carried in on the other side by the army so they'd come from the far touchline all the way across to us. There was about 50 coffins.
"The strangest thing happened, though. When one came by, I nearly fell to the floor. My mom didn't know what hit me. But I kept following it with my eyes. And I was right. It was Dad."
He says he can't explain that, but there's been a lot he's struggled to explain across the year since 28 November, 2016, when LaMia 2933 plunged into a mountain on its way to Medellin, Colombia, killing 71 of the 77 on board, including Caio Junior.
Top of that list tends to be why this happened, as that question needs to be separated from the cold and surgical facts around how this happened.
There is no excuse for letting a modern jet run low on fuel, never mind run dry. Standard operating procedure ought to stop it happening, as should aviation law. But even when those are bypassed for whatever reason, low-fuel amber lights will come on in the cockpit.
Pilots at this point carry out the quick-reference handbook procedures. Then, when there's nothing to quench the engine's thirst, an electrical generator or a hydraulic pump will provide energy to vital controls. That electrical or hydraulic power will go next, bringing on more warnings as noise and panic increase.
That must have been the case up front on LaMia 2933 in its final moments. Back in the cabin, however, it went quiet. Ximena Suarez was the air hostess on duty and remembers it just like that.
"We didn't have access to the cockpit; the last I saw of the flight deck was when I brought the pilots dinner," she says. "I just heard the captain's voice again when he said over the intercom we were approaching, so I got the cabin ready.
"It was a really normal flight until we started going around and one of the passengers asked why. I wanted to ask the pilots about it, so I reached for the phone and the lights went off. I had the phone in my hand, and there was no shouting or anything. Silence. Then came the impact. The only noise was after we hit due to the screaming.
"It's a lie when some said in the news that people were out of their seats. If they got up, I'd have to get up as well, and I wouldn't be here today."
She got lucky, and she now has a tattoo of a LaMia aircraft on her back heading to heaven to remember those who didn't. Those unaware of the gamble that was taken with their lives.
After Caio Junior and his band of underdogs had made their way from Sao Paulo to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on a commercial flight, they boarded a chartered Avro RJ85 for Medellin.
According to the flight plan, captain Miguel Quiroga—who also was joint-owner of LaMia, a detail that cannot be overlooked considering the conflict of interest in the industry between profit margins and safety levels—had filled in an estimated flight time of four hours and 22 minutes. Underneath, the fuel range was filled in as exactly the same. This was no mistake, with airline employees later saying such cost-cutting measures weren't a one-off.
The other co-owner of LaMia, Gustavo Vargas Gamboa, pleaded guilty to the first earlier this year and has been under house arrest since. With serious heart problems, he was unable to talk, having recently been taken into surgery. All the while, his son was head of the Bolivian national aviation authority who authorised the LaMia paperwork and procedures.
It gets more damning still.
In the days after the crash, a mechanic came forward and spoke under anonymity.
"I noticed Quiroga in my hangar about five or six times in the last 40 days," he said. "The Atletico team [Nacional, Chapecoense's final opponents] flew twice with him, Sportivo Luqueno traveled with him, the national teams of Venezuela, Argentina and Bolivia, too.
"They always traveled with fuel on the edge to make more money. A week ago, I called my lawyer trying to prohibit the operation of that aircraft for the crashed flight, but I think it wasn't in time. They got permission to go ahead."
"It was a small company," Suarez adds. "They were growing a lot, but we had problems in the company with health insurance, salaries were late—this kind of thing. We were flying a lot, though, so there was a lot of overtime. Miguel Quiroga was a really good pilot and, to be honest, I don't know what went wrong in his head. An excellent person.
"People keep asking me about him, but all the questions I have to ask him, that will only happen when I die. Why they didn't tell me anything? Why they didn't warn me? What happened, though—the psychological effects were worse than the physical effects. I am terrified of the darkness. Now I cannot stay in a dark place. I have nightmares all the time, and I see it and get so scared. And why? I'll only know the answers when I'm gone."
The Avro RJ85 has a listed range of 1,600 nautical miles, but the distance from Santa Cruz to Medellin is 1,604 nautical miles. That doesn't take into consideration that a plane never flies in a direct line between points due to external factors such as hold-ups and headwinds, or that a jet out of the factory 17 years consumes more fuel than it did when it was brand new.
Besides, a planned journey on this plane should be under three hours, with law requiring an additional 30 minutes of fuel reserves for the time it would take to reach an alternate airport (here, Bogota was that alternate, a full 55 minutes away). Then there's the need for 5 percent contingency fuel. Being generous, you get four hours and 15 minutes of maximum journey time as a risky call, yet from takeoff to off-radar, LaMia 2933 was a half-hour above that. And still they stood a chance, although in aviation, they call it the Swiss cheese effect, where all holes must align for a disaster.
At the Medellin airport, air traffic controller Yaneth Molina had come to work in the tower that night as she had done for 22 years.
Yaneth Molina
"Never in all that time did it happen like this. It was such a coincidence that at the same time, two planes declared emergency. And for the same reason, a fuel emergency," she recalls of an Airbus A320 belonging to Viva that asked for priority landing that night due to a suspected leak. It forced LaMia into a holding pattern as warnings flashed in the cockpit.
Quiroga had taken too long, though. He should have called pan-pan or mayday, granting him priority, although that would have resulted in obviously unwanted on-ground inspections and interviews. Thus his language didn't incorporate the correct terminology, meaning Molina didn't know the severity for several more minutes.
"The pressure suddenly goes up," she says, "but I had all that experience to deal with this inconvenience. At least, I thought it was just an inconvenience at first. But then there's a moment of powerlessness, sadness and frustration that I had to pass through. That's when the plane goes off the radar, and the first thing is to call emergency services."
Nelson Castrillon of the police was one of those in the emergency services that night.
"When we arrived, there was a thick fog," he says. "The plane looked like a white spot, but as we got closer, I saw it had been totally shattered. I stood there looking for who was alive, trying to hear if someone was breathing. But body by body, none had vital signs.
"Suddenly, I heard someone's voice. 'Please help. Help.' I took a flashlight and lit his face and he held out his hand. 'Please, I do not want to die.' And I answered, 'Calm down, my friend. I am the national police. You're already saved.' There was a dead body on top of him, and I moved the corpse and stayed with him talking, to calm him. And at that moment, I found out this was Jakson Follmann, the Chapecoense goalkeeper."
Arquimedes Mejia of the fire brigade was one of those in the emergency services that night.
"A week earlier, we'd been running drills around a plane crash, but training isn't like reality," he says. "The crash was up in the mountains, and as we got close, it was just the sound of dogs barking through the night. Then Ximena Suarez was heard shouting, and her voice guided us to her and other survivors.
"They were in the upper part of Cerro Gordo, where the landing gear hit. The bodies of the dead were in the canyon below. It took an hour-and-a-half to rescue Ximena, as she was stuck in a tree, screaming about the pain and asking where the captain and crew were."
Police officer Marlon Lengua was one of those in the emergency services that night.
"I heard a lot of despair over the radio, but the first image of the plane left me in shock," he says. "I just put my hands on my head, too traumatised to speak. By then, they said all survivors had been taken, and with a strong storm coming and 250 rescuers in this terrain, they were scared of an avalanche and withdrew all but five of us who were left to keep watch.
"We camped under a part of the plane—the cold was unbearable—but I started walking around asking, 'Why did this happen?' I saw cones, jerseys, boots, and as a football lover, this was torment.
"I even heard a noise and thought I was going crazy, but I heard it again. We did not know if it was a flight attendant, a journalist or a player, but we knew it was a guy called Neto because we found his name on his ID, and we talked all the time to him. 'Neto, we are with you.' He was alive but he had an open wound on his head, right through to the skull, which was horrific. We just wanted to get him out of that hell."
It was a hell that had come to their part of South America, but it had yet to reach another.
Susana Ribas was never much of a football fan; thus, it wasn't Willian Thiego's job that impressed her. He may have been a physical defender on a three-month trial at Gremio, but it was the person and not the player who captivated her when they first met at a birthday party.
"I still remember the day," says Ribas, "28 October, 2006. We got talking, and after that, we never left each other."
The Ribas family
Over the next decade, Thiego's career had come a long way. Before the accident, he had signed a deal with Santos, the club of Pele and Neymar, for the 2017 season. His family life had come a long way, too, as he married and had a little girl. When he set off to Sao Paulo and on to Colombia, the child's age meant it was too early to wake her, so he whispered a goodbye that become a forever farewell.
"I kissed him and told him to go with God and to call me when he arrived," Ribas remembers. "Everything was working so well for the team, in all the games. Thiego used to tell me, 'Today, if we played against Barcelona, we would beat them.'
"They were all in tune: the squad, the fans, the city. And we were all really close to each other. I am telling you this because we were going on holidays together, 10 couples and kids, to Punta Cana after the final.
"But he called when he got to Santa Cruz, and that was the last time we talked. He was boarding and said, 'Sweetheart, this is the last trip this year. After this game, we're going to enjoy our holidays, and next year we will be in Santos.'"
When Anderson Donizete got in touch with his wife, Jacqueline Madrid, that final day, his words were a mix of the marvelous and the mundane. They'd met when he'd gone to Uruguay to do some missionary work, but his other passion (sport) eventually got him the job of Chapecoense kit man three years prior. His dream, though, was always to some day do the job with the Brazilian national team.
"We talked on the morning when he was in Sao Paulo," Jacqueline says, "and he said happy anniversary, as it was our 14th anniversary on 27 November. He said he was hungry as he didn't have time to have breakfast; they were having problems with checking in due to documentation issues and the flight was delayed. After, when he got to Santa Cruz and called again, it was just normal. Why wouldn't it be? There should be nothing abnormal about it."
So many cling to those last calls, but for Matheus Saroli, it was the lack of a call that troubles him. He had told his father to ring when he got there. When he didn't hear from him, he presumed he was too busy and went to sleep. Then there was a flood of activity on his phone that awoke him.
PING. "Answer my calls."
PING. PING. "Turn on the news." "Are you seeing this?"
PING. "Please answer your phone."
"I was living in an apartment by myself," he says. "My mom lives across from me in another one. It was unusual he didn't send a message saying he'd arrived, but I went to sleep around midnight, and by 2 a.m., my phone was blowing up. I finally took a look and from then I started following anything I could. The phone, the TV, my computer. Anything.
"I did that for two hours and went and woke my mom up, and we sat watching the news. I don't think we moved for the next 48 hours. You know, you don't believe it. You are in shock. You can't process anything. It's terrible, but you still have hope. There are survivors. There are survivors. ... They're still finding people. ... He got away from the plane in case of an explosion. Your mind goes nuts. Horrible, and it was only the start."
Rivas had just finished up a barbecue to celebrate her father's birthday and had spent the night packing luggage for her family's upcoming holiday. With no call from her husband, she simply thought they had no internet connection and fell asleep without worry.
"But I woke up with my sister calling me, and my mom just said the Chapecoense plane had crashed," she says. "When I saw on television that there were survivors, I was sure Thiego was alive. I only accepted it when they showed me the list of deceased. That was the worst week of my life, going to Chapeco to get his body, bringing it to his home city of Aracaju to bury him. I didn't sleep once even though I was taking pills."
She didn't tell their daughter directly, either. Instead, she explained that her father had gone to play football with Uncle Kleber in heaven and that every time she sees a star in the sky, her father is up there watching her.
"Now she knows her dad won't come back, so she doesn't ask about him, but she talks about him all the time, mentioning the memories she has, things they used to do," she says. "But after the accident, everything changed. I feel a hole in my heart, and it doesn't go away, it gets worse. I have to keep a smile on my face for our daughter, but I can't move on."
After talking, she sends on photos of the three of them together with a message. "To see those pictures again is painful. I miss him so much. This hurt is a knot in my throat. It's all too hard."
On the night of the scheduled game in Medellin, a touching ceremony took place in the usually intimidating AtanasioGirardot Stadium as burning passion became stunning peace, and the best of humanity emerged from the misery.
Dressing in white while carrying flowers and candles, Colombian fans filled the bowl while tens of thousands more gathered outside. Back in Brazil, the station scheduled to broadcast the game left the screen black, with the score and the clock ticking away in the corner.
Meanwhile, Atletico Nacional awarded the title to a team that no longer really existed.
Moments like these brought it home to many and inspired others. Gabriel Andrade had never been to Chapeco and wasn't a fan of Chapecoense, but he was friends with striker Tulio De Melo, who had left the club before the accident.
"He called me, and he was very emotional because he had loads of friends on the plane," Andrade says. "He wanted us to help the families of the victims."
They came up with the idea of Abravic, a nonprofit association for those left behind, which Andrade presides over. It began last March, but bureaucracy and chaos meant vital results have only recently started to come through.
"From the beginning, what I could see was the desperation of the families—and the club as well," Andrade says. "It is a humanitarian tragedy, and it brought a lot of commotion. It was a mix of despair and a lack of coordination. And when I came to the club, it was easy to see they were lost—without direction, without structure, not knowing what to do. It wasn't deliberate, but they helped sparingly and didn't create an accident committee or have crisis management."
It may feel inappropriate to talk about money, but as much as life changes, it goes on. As do the costs. Recently, the association helped broker a deal where each family received R$11,000 (around $3,360) from a couple of friendly games abroad, which was half the income. That 50 percent will continue to flow from special events.
In October, a monthly R$28,800 started making its way to the association as well for projects such as partnerships providing therapy for the families of those who died, health insurance and medical supplies to parents who may have relied on their sons' incomes via what was more than a game and money to send their kids to school.
"You can't overlook that aspect," says Susana Ribas. "We used to have a comfortable life, and now with the state pension, what we get is not even 10 percent of what we used to get. However, the association helps, and the club helps us to try to get on with our lives in some small way."
Jacqueline Madrid agrees and can't thank the club, where she works as a secretary, enough. "I left Uruguay, and here my husband was my only family. It's been so hard. I've had my birthday, my wedding anniversary and the one-year anniversary of losing him all in such a short space that this has overwhelmed me.
"I remember that I was told what happened by an Argentinian reporter who had been here with River Plate, and I did some translations. At three that morning, he told me. But we never had a lot of money, and since then, the club and Abravic have paid my rent. But it's not just money, either. To stay sane, I've just put all my energy into the club. They've been so good to me."
With the investigation not closed in Colombia and difficulties around documentation in Bolivia, insurance has still not been paid, though.
"Like any person involved in an accident or murder, investigators need answers, too," Andrade says. "But the families will get their insurance—it is their right—and we will continue to do all we can to make life more bearable each day."
Andrade is an example of the selfless good that emanated from what happened a year ago, but let's not pretend there hasn't been a dark side, too. After all, where there is yang, there is yin.
Chapecoense played Barcelona in a friendly.
Take Luis Ara, a Uruguayan documentary maker who had followed the team's rise for many years on a personal level. He says he approached the club shortly after the accident, asked for permission to tell their story and agreed to give half the proceeds to the families.
He has invested much of the last 12 months into The Miracle of Chapeco, traveling from Medellin to the friendly in Barcelona, shooting exclusive footage. Ara says Chapecoense told him the donation would be handled by them, and so production began. But upon release, an injunction came.
"It was from the club," Ara says, "and it was because they messed up. I cannot say a lot as it's in court, but basically they forgot to tell all the families, so those families were baffled as to why they didn't know about it. And so was I."
According to Ara, the club made three specific complaints against him. First, that he had no permission, even though he says he has the release forms. "And how could we not have," Ara says, "we were in the stadium, in dressing rooms?" Second, they claimed it was sensationalist, when Ara says that complaint was filed on a Friday and he only sent the club a copy the next day. "Besides, the families said it was anything but." And third, the club weren't informed of the release date, when he says, "I have emails to the contrary."
There's been plenty of other unpleasantness, too. By the new year, in the state championship, when a new and quickly assembled Chapecoense side traveled to nearby Criciuma, the home fans chanted, "Ao, ao, ao, abastece o aviao," which roughly translates as "refuel your plane."
Meanwhile, some spoken to have also bemoaned the commercialisation of the accident and said the integrity of grief has been compromised by the marketing of death. The club itself refused all requests to speak to any of its employees.
Matheus Saroli has taken issue with Chapecoense. Back in April, a cutting post went up on his Facebook page.
"The club's focus is on reconstruction. Let's make it clear though, reconstruction is something built exclusively on people who are no longer among us. I'm talking about the president, financial director and soccer director, among others who created this project from scratch years ago, and who took Chapecoense from a club level practically non-existent to a Serie A team... Today the club is managed by people without any connection to the victims. Their connection is to marketing, expansion and profit... It is impressive how much they are worried about the club reconstruction but not about constructing an image of all the warriors who gave their lives to the club... They hire an artistic director, sponsor race cars, do pyrotechnic shows, for this vital 'reconstruction'.
"My question is if the club took the year to give sole and exclusive attention to the victims, would we have a different scenario? Would we have media giving attention to those who deserve and need help now? Would we have the people required to help children with psychological treatment and countless other situations? Would we have people to resolve all bureaucratic issues involving of more than 50 families that have not at all been resolved to date? But no, hiring an artistic director for an absurd party and a whole new cast is a priority in this rebuilding."
You ask him about this. "There's not much more I can say," he says. "I felt like at the beginning rather than reconstructing the team, they should have focused more on the people that had lost so much. It is what it is. We are doing the best we can, but we don't have a relationship with the club anymore."
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
There's an uncomfortable truth and an uncomfortable feeling provided by anniversaries such as this one.
From the outside, it feels like we're rubbernecking at grief, voyeurs peeking in on misery, raking over the cold coals because of the convenient date. Did you care last week? Will you care next week? For the rest of us, it's been a cosy round number to revisit. But for those left behind, it's been 365 days, 52 weeks, 8,760 hours, 535,600 minutes of physical and mental suffering.
"After an event like that, your life changes completely," Yaneth Molina, the air traffic controller, says. "Personally. Professionally. Psychologically. I've been questioned by everybody, they all look in my direction."
The 47-year-old only recently returned to work, but she knew from that night she'd have to live with that radar screen and the call sign of Lima Mike India and those victims forever. In the airport, after finishing her duties, it caused her to run to a toilet and lose it before finally calling her husband. "I just told him, 'I lost a plane.'"
When she got home, she broke down again before a doctor arrived to evaluate her. "I found myself crying inconsolably in my bed. The diagnosis of the doctor did not surprise me. Post-traumatic stress. In aviation, that's really post-accident stress. It was a diagnosis that required the people around me to be watching over me in case they noticed any significant change in my mood or any behaviour that was too aggressive or too passive." But she admits much of this year has been spent with the repetitive, rhetorical question: "Why me?"
Where there is dark, though, shards of light shine brighter.
Jakson Follmann
Jakson Follmann for instance, a 24-year-old athlete and one of the six survivors of the crash, started his 2017 with a prosthetic lower right leg—and within a week of physio, he had beaten all odds to merely take a step.
"I cried a lot," he told the New York Times. "But the few times I think about the accident, I try to turn my mind around. I try to think about everybody’s happiness, and this is good for me because I only think good things about those who are gone. And this strengthens me. The image that stays with me is of everybody’s smiles."
Of the two other players who survived, as they were also sitting near the wings, Alan Ruschel has returned to play with the team, starting as captain in the friendly with Barcelona in August.
Meanwhile, Neto has added, "I'll be back in 2018" with a club that has maintained its top-flight status. "I'm like an old car," he joked, "it's giving a lot of trouble. My gall bladder was operated on, now I'm going to have knee surgery."
Across the year, those who saved them also had a chance to meet the individuals they kept alive, which has made a massive impact. Small mercies. Little victories. Nelson Castrillon, who found Follmann under a corpse, describes it "as the most beautiful" when the goalkeeper arrived in Colombia to meet up.
"He hugged me and thanked me," Castrillon says. "I think it was the most spectacular thing I have ever had in my life that Jakson Follmann from the beginning acknowledged that the national police were the ones who rescued him. That's what he said in the interviews from the very beginning until today."
Marlon Lengua also clings to seeing Neto in the hospital in the days after the rescue.
"I believe it was the reward for everything that was done," Lengua says. "My eyes watered. It was the happiness to know that all the effort was for something. 'Thank you very much,' he told me. When I arrived at the hospital, his father and brother also hugged me in a surprising way with a kind of affection that a person knows is sincere. They did not want to let me go.
"It was really difficult, the first month. I did not sleep calmly. When I did my job every day and I heard a plane, I thought immediately it was going to fall. It was really difficult to think of all the people I met there dead. I still see them."
Saroli still sees his father, too, in the pictures he has dotted around the house. But more recently, he's tried to see his father when he looks in the mirror. That's because he just had a child of his own, and that is how he can carry on the good name and the good work of Caio Junior.
"He had a life with a lot of obligations, yet he was always present," Saroli says. "He was charismatic. He was always close. He participated in my decisions. For us, we lived our whole lives around my dad. We all moved with him, so as you can imagine, that is what our identity was. That was taken, and although he may be gone, he set the example for me to follow in every way, and we chose to remember him through his decency and his love.
"But what happened, it's unbelievable. The crash was greed. I believe there's a scam behind it to recommend the company to football teams, but still we don't know."
After the pause of that night last November, such unknowns have provided the choking frustration.
Air crash investigators did, however, know what had happened within days, despite the reports searching for positives in the media. Initially, some major newspapers even celebrated the captain, suggesting he was circling to dump fuel due to another issue when the Avro RJ doesn't even have a fuel dump facility.
It was clawing for a hero in the plane when there were just victims. On the ground, that quickly became clear, as there wasn't the tell-tale smell of jet fuel. The fact the engines hadn't ingested the hillside showed they weren't running at the time of the collision.
If they are the cold and surgical facts around how this happened, though, some still await the reason why. Maybe it doesn't exist, and that's just a way to put off dealing with it. Maybe there's no more to it than penny-pinching, which in itself might be impossible to deal with.
All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise indicated.
Alan Ruschel to Play vs. Barcelona After Surviving November Plane Crash
Jul 28, 2017
Chapecoense soccer team player Alan Ruschel gestures to supporters after a training session at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. Ruschel is one of the six passengers that survived in the Chapecoense air crash, which killed 71 people, including 19 team players almost two months ago in Colombia. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Alan Ruschel will feature for Chapecoense against Barcelona in a friendly on August 7, after surviving the plane crash that killed 71 people last November.
Squawka News confirmed the player will return for his team at the Camp Nou, as the defender resumes his career.
PerESPN.co.uk, the 27-year-old recently made his comeback for the side in a friendly against Brazilian club Ypiranga, coming on as a substitute in the second half.
Chapecoense tragically lost 19 players as their plane crashed in Colombia on their way to the Copa Sudamericana final.
The Brazilian side will take on Barca for the Joan Gamper Trophy, which is traditionally played for before the Blaugrana start their La Liga season.
Fan Dies in Violent Clash Between Vasco Da Gama, Flamengo Supporters
Jul 9, 2017
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - JULY 08: Vasco fans get angry arter defeat in the game and come into confrontation with the police after the match between Vasco da Gama and Flamengo as part of Brasileirao Series A 2017 at Sao Januario Stadium on July 08, 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Alexandre Loureiro/Getty Images)
A fan was reportedly shot and killed after violence broke out between supporters of Vasco da Gama and Flamengo on Saturday. Brazil's Globo Esporte (h/t Aaron Flanagan of the Sunday Mirror) reported a 27-year-old man "was killed after being shot in the chest as riots commenced."
The game, a Rio derby, was attended by Liverpool playmaker and former Vasco star Philippe Coutinho.
Flanagan noted Coutinho was "welcomed to the ground by Vasco's president and watched the game from a VIP box."
However, trouble began at the Estadio Vasco da Gama after Flamengo won the derby 1-0, per Flanagan. It was the club's first win there in nearly half a century. Riots broke out in the stands and outside the ground as supporters also clashed with the police.
Sixteen-year-old Real Madrid signee Vinicius Junior was among the players who fled the pitch, while tear gas was used and "homemade bombs" were thrown, per Flanagan.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - JULY 08: Vasco fans get angry arter defeat in the game and come into confrontation with the police after the match between Vasco da Gama and Flamengo as part of Brasileirao Series A 2017 at Sao Januario Stadium on July 08, 2017 inRIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - JULY 08: Flamengo players leave the field escorted by police after the match between Vasco da Gama and Flamengo as part of Brasileirao Series A 2017 at Sao Januario Stadium on July 08, 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Ale
The victim has yet to identified, according to Andrew Downie of Reuters. Downie noted a gunfight erupted following the match and that three others were also injured, although they have since been released from hospital.
The violence prompted an apology from Vasco president Eurico Miranda, per ESPN.co.uk: "What happened here is not Vasco. I am asking for apologies in the name of Vasco. Actually, what happened here is something that has no justification."
