In the municipality of La Unión, they await survivors of the Chapecoense tragedy to commemorate the victims

This weekend marks four years since the accident of the Chapecoense plane tragedy, in which 71 people died, two days before they played the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final with Atlético Nacional.

In the municipality of La Unión, in Medellín, a mass will be held this Saturday at 2:00 pm in honor of the victims. The Eucharistic tribute will not be held at the site of the accident, due to the poor condition of the roads, but in a house located in the path of Pantalio.

The inhabitants of the area hope, as every year, that some of the survivors attend. Miguel Ramírez, father of Johan Ramírez, the so-called “angel boy”, who helped the authorities locate the accident site, joined the request for some of the survivors to be present at the scene.

According to Blu Radio, Johan Ramírez is 19 years old and has lived in the United States for just over a month, where you are studying English.

“It is a very horrible memory that will never be forgotten, I spend two or three times a week in that place, I walk a lot through the place where they were injured. We will never forget what happened. “

On November 23, 2016, the Chapecoense team celebrated, at its Arena Condá stadium, the tie against San Lorenzo de Almagró in the final of the South American Cup. That night Marcos Danilo Padilha showed why he was the star of the team, since in the entire tournament the goalkeeper had only conceded four goals against.

The historic qualification left its fans in Brazil dreaming of the first international title in Chapecó’s 43-year club history to date.

On November 27, LaMia Flight 2933 departed from Viru Viru International Airport, in Bolivia, to José María Córdova International Airport in Antioquia. The flight carried 68 passengers, 9 crew members and it was piloted by Miguel Alejandro Quiroga Murakami. Most of the passengers were players from the Brazilian team who already dreamed of facing Atlético Nacional in the first leg of the Sudamericana.

The pilot Miguel Quiroga was also a shareholder in the Bolivian airline, and in the communication he maintained with the control tower he made a huge mistake that could have changed the fate of the 77 souls on board.

It was learned later, in the investigations that were carried out to determine the causes of the accident, that Quiroga took too long to declare himself in emergency to, thus, obtain the privilege of landing over the rest of the planes that were heading towards the airport. The pilot only did it 2:30 minutes after requesting priority, at which time it was impossible to get to the track.

At 10:15 pm, the plane crashed at Cerro Gordo, a hill located in La Unión, five minutes from the runway. The rear of the plane collided first, leaving the tail over the top of the mountain while the fuselage and cockpit went downhill.

Hours after the accident, the first rescuers arrived to see the magnitude of the tragedy. In their search they found Alan Ruschel, reserve goalkeeper Jakson Follmann and Neto. The other survivors were a journalist, Rafael Henzel from Rádio Oeste, and two members of the flight crew: Ximena Suárez, flight attendant, and Erwin Tumiri, flight technician, both of Bolivian nationality.

The news shocked football and journalism. Most of the 71 fatalities were professional players and journalists from Brazil who came to cover the match. For weeks thousands of teams from around the world paid tribute to the victims and Conmebol even declared the team champion of the South American Cup at the request of Atlético Nacional as a tribute to the deceased.

Despite the help they received from another team, since most of their payroll disappeared that day, Chapecoense began to live a black age and even experienced internal problems with the managers who took over the team after the tragedy.

In 2018 the results showed the crisis they were experiencing: Chapecó’s team was eliminated in the previous phase of the Libertadores and although it tried not to lose the category, it could not against Botafogo and confirmed its fall to the second division, from where it has not been able leave.

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