This is how Johan Alexis Ramírez lives today, the “angel child” who was a hero in the Chapecoense tragedy

On the night of November 28, 2016, Johan Alexis Ramírez, 15 years old, a young peasant who lived in a humble house located a short distance from Cerro Gordo, Municipality of La Unión, Antioquia, lived one of the moments that marked his life forever.

The Paisa boy was consecrated as a hero and called by the press as the “angel boy”, Because with their help, the rescuers gained vital minutes and managed to get six crew members alive from the flight that was transporting the Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense, which was going to play the final of the South American Cup against Atlético Nacional.

Despite the recognition he has won, Johan does not forget the harrowing moments he lived that night, in which there were 71 fatalities. Those raw hours of screaming, moaning and uneasiness were captured in his memory. “When I was going up to help another, my father came down with another group. There was one that we carried about ten or fifteen meters, but he died, he did not reach the road”, Said the boy days later in the newspaper El Colombiano de Medellín.

Johan remembers the accident from the United States where he studies English

After four years of the tragedy, the boy is already on the verge of turning 20 and his life is the living example of how a tragedy can determine the future of a family.

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The Bogota newspaper El Tiempo learned from Johan’s father, Miguel Ramírez, that on September 27, just when they enabled international flights in Colombia, The young man left for Florida, United States, to fulfill his dream of studying English abroad.

Johan spoke with El Colombiano and told him how his life has changed until today. “Before the accident I was thinking of finishing high school and working with my father in agriculture, but after that I was given other opportunities such as a scholarship to study,” the young man told the newspaper.

He also commented that he is studying industrial engineering at the Universidad Católica de Oriente and from his trip to the United States. “Thanks to the support of a well-known person, working and learning English and then return to my country after the course. And of course hopefully later I can return and become professional here “Johan commented to El Colombiano.

The anecdote of the “angel child”

In the interview that the newspaper El Colombiano conducted with Johan this Saturday, he explained why they began to call him the “angel child”, to which he replied:

I was recognized as the ‘angel child’ because at the time of the accident I helped rescue three survivors and my dad two. At that moment, my dad and I took the survivors out by an alternate route where ambulances weren’t waiting for us.

What happened the night of the tragedy

A few minutes after hearing the crash of the plane colliding with the Cerro Gordo mountain, without thinking about it, Johan left with his father and they walked to the accident. After a few meters they could hear the screams. It was this young man who helped the rescuers reach the point of tragedy, where miraculously there were survivors.

“They shouted that on one side there was one, that there was the other. They began to remove the wounded, but they were opening the trail towards the hill and that way it was very slow, so we told them that there was an easier and faster way“, remember Johan when talking to the newspaper The Colombian, from Medellin.

Knowledgeable as few of those mountains of Antioquia, Johan and their father began to be, themselves, guides and lifeguards. Among crops of tomatoes, beans and peas, they removed the survivors one by one, first to Alan Ruschel, one of the soccer players of Chapecoense that could be saved.

“They were already dating him and I told a firefighter, that he was like one of the bosses, that I knew the way”Said the young man. “I accompanied them and ran to the police officers to tell them that we had one of the injured on the road. There was already a car trip that had arrived at the place”He added.

Johan expressed his feelings for the moment he lived and that he will never forget: “I was very tired, but couldn’t sleep. However, it gave me great satisfaction to help save lives and I never did it to go looking for material objects“.

Chapecoense: Four years after the tragedy that shocked the world

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, because in the entire tournament the goalkeeper had only conceded four goals against.

The historic qualification left 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 Colombia. 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 final first leg of the Sudamericana.

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

It was later learned, in the investigations into the causes of the loss, that Quiroga took too long to declare an emergency and, thus, obtain the landing privilege over the rest of the planes they were heading towards the airport. The pilot only did it 2:30 minutes after requesting priority, at which point 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 cabin were downhill.

Hours after the accident, the first rescuers arrived to see the magnitude of the tragedy. In your search, supported by the peasant boy Jhon Alexis Ramírez and his father, found Alan Ruschel, reserve goalkeeper Jackson 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.