FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016, file photo, players of Brazil's Chapecoense celebrate at the end of a Copa Sudamericana semifinal soccer match against Argentina's San Lorenzo in Chapeco, Brazil.... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016, file photo, players of Brazil's Chapecoense celebrate at the end of a Copa Sudamericana semifinal soccer match against Argentina's San Lorenzo in Chapeco, Brazil. A chartered aircraft with 81 people on board, including the Brazilian first division Chapecoense... (Associated Press) 
 
 MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) — A chartered plane with a Brazilian first division soccer team crashed near Medellin while on its way to the finals of a regional tournament, killing 76 people, Colombian officials said Tuesday. Five people survived. 
 
 The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline named LaMia, declared an emergency at 10 p.m. Monday (0300 GMT) because of an electrical failure, aviation authorities said. 
 
 The aircraft, which had departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the Chapecoense soccer team to Medellin's Jose Maria Cordova airport. 
 
 The team, from southern Brazil and which had started its journey in Sao Paulo, was scheduled to play Wednesday in the first of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin. 
 
 It wasn't immediately clear if the team switched planes in Bolivia or just made a stopover with the same plane. 
 
 "What was supposed to be a celebration has turned into a tragedy," Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez said from the search and rescue command center. 
 
 The club said in a brief statement on its Facebook page that "may God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests traveling with our delegation." 
 
 Brazil as well as 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 organization said in a statement. 
 
 Elkin Ospina, mayor of La Ceja, near where the crash took place, said rescuers working through the night had been heartened after pulling three passengers alive from the wreckage. 
 
 Authorities and rescuers were immediately activated but an air force helicopter had to turn back because of low visibility. Heavy rainfall complicated the nighttime search, and authorities urged journalists to stay off the roads so ambulances and other rescuers could reach the site. 
 
 Images broadcast on local television showed three male passengers arriving to a local hospital in ambulances on stretchers and covered in blankets connected to an IV. All were apparently alive and one of them was reportedly a Chapecoense defender named Alan Ruschel. 
 
 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, and previously had transported Venezuela's national team. 
 
 British Aerospace, which is now known as BAE Systems, says that the first 146-model plane took off in 1981 and that just under 400 — including the successor Avro RJ — were built in total in the U.K. through 2003. It says around 220 of are still in service in a variety of roles, including aerial firefighting and overnight freight services. 
 
 A video published on the team's Facebook page showed the team readying for the flight earlier Monday in Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport. 
 
 The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy tale season. It joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals — the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament — after defeating two of Argentina's fiercest squads, San Lorenzo and Independiente, as well as Colombia's Junior. 
 
 The team is so modest that its 22,000-seat arena was ruled by tournament organizers too small to host the final match, which was instead moved to a stadium 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the north in the city of Curitiba. 
 
 "Chapecoense was the biggest source of happiness in the town," the club's vice-president, Ivan Tozzo, told Brazil's SporTV. "Many in the town are crying." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Joshua Goodman reported from Bogota. Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese contributed to this report from Rio de Janeiro. ||||| Rescue workers stand at the wreckage site of a chartered airplane that crashed in a mountainous area outside Medellin, Colombia, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. The plane was carrying the Brazilian first division... (Associated Press) 
 
 LA UNION, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's worst air crash in two decades snuffed out a storybook run by a Brazilian soccer team, and authorities are digging in trying to figure out why a chartered jetliner crashed in the Andes, killing all but six of the 77 people aboard. 
 
 The country's aviation agency said Tuesday that the British Aerospace 146's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder had been found among the wreckage strewn over a mountainside and were already being studied by experts. 
 
 Initially, Colombian officials said the short-haul jet suffered an electrical failure, but there was also heavy rain when the crew declared an emergency and the plane disappeared from radar just before 10 p.m. Monday. 
 
 Authorities also said they were not ruling out the possibility the aircraft ran out of fuel minutes before it was to land at Jose Maria Cordova airport outside Medellin, a report given to rescuers by a surviving flight attendant. Officials said they hoped to interview her Wednesday. 
 
 Emotional pain resonated across the region over the loss of much of the Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil, which just two years after working its way into Brazil's top league for the first time in decades had fought its way into the championship of one of South America's most prestigious tournaments. 
 
 The aircraft, which departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was carrying the team to Wednesday's first game in the two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin. Twenty-one Brazilian journalists were traveling with the team. 
 
 South America's soccer federation canceled all scheduled matches in a show of solidarity, while the Real Madrid and Barcelona clubs interrupted their training sessions for a minute of silence. Brazil's top teams offered to lend players to the small club for next season as it rebuilds, saying: "It is the minimum gesture of solidarity that is within our reach." 
 
 In a moving gesture, Atletico Nacional asked that the championship title be given to Chapecoense, whose upstart run in the tournament electrified soccer-crazed Brazil. 
 
 Three players were among the survivors. Alan Ruschel was reported in the most serious condition, facing surgery for a spinal fracture. Teammates Helio Zampier and Jakson Follmann also suffered multiple trauma injuries, and doctors had to amputate Follmann's right leg. 
 
 A journalist also underwent surgery and two Bolivian crew members were in stable condition, hospital officials said. 
 
 The aircraft is owned by LaMia, a charter company that started in Venezuela but later relocated to Bolivia, where it was certified to operate last January. Despite apparently limited experience, the airline has a close relationship with several premier South American soccer squads. 
 
 Earlier this month, the plane involved in the crash transported Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and Argentina's national team from Brazil following a World Cup qualifying match. The airliner also appeared to have transported the national squads of Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela in the last three months, according to a log of recent activity provided by Flightradar24.com. 
 
 Before being taken offline, LaMia's website said it operated three 146 Avro short-haul jets made by British Aerospace, with a maximum range of around 2,965 kilometers (1,600 nautical miles) — about the distance between Santa Cruz and Medellin. 
 
 Hans Weber, a longtime adviser to U.S. aviation authorities, said the aircraft's range deserves careful investigation. He noted that air distance between cities is usually measured by the shortest route but planes rarely fly in a straight line, with pilots steering around turbulence or changing course for other reasons. 
 
 Given the model of the plane and the fact that it was flying close to capacity, "I would be concerned that the pilots may have been cutting it too close," Weber said. 
 
 A spokesman for Bolivia's civil aviation agency, Cesar Torrico, said the plane was inspected before departing for Colombia and no problems were reported. 
 
 Gustavo Vargas, a retired Bolivian air force general who is president of the airline, said: "We can't rule out anything. The investigation is ongoing and we're going to await the results." 
 
 Moments before the plane took off, the team's coaching staff gave an interview to a Bolivian television station in which they praised the airline, saying it brought them good fortune when it flew them to Colombia last month for the championship's quarterfinals, which they won. 
 
 "Now we're going to do this new trip and we hope they bring us good luck like they did the first time," athletic director Mauro Stumpf told Gigavision TV. 
 
 The team, from the small Brazilian city of Chapeco, was having a breakout season. It advanced to the Copa Sudamericana finals after defeating some of the region's top teams, including Argentina's San Lorenzo and Independiente. 
 
 The Chapecoense club is so modest that tournament organizers ruled its 22,000-seat stadium was too small to host the concluding match of the two-game final and moved it to a stadium 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the city of Curitiba. Some fans in soccer-mad Brazil were so enchanted with its magical run that they started a campaign online to move the final match to Rio de Janeiro's iconic Maracana stadium, where the 2014 World Cup final was played. 
 
 "This morning I said goodbye to them and they told me they were going after the dream, turning that dream into reality," Chapecoense board member Plinio De Nes told Brazil's TV Globo. "The dream was over early this morning." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Fernando Vergara reported this story in La Union, Colombia, and AP writer Joshua Goodman reported from Bogota. ||||| Britain Football Soccer - Arsenal v Southampton - EFL Cup Quarter Final - Emirates Stadium - 30/11/16 (L - R) Arsenal's Lucas Perez, Gabriel Paulista and Aaron Ramsey hold a banner as they observe a minutes silence as respect for the victims of the Colombia plane crash containing the Chapecoense players and staff Reuters / Stefan Wermuth Livepic 
 
 Young fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes 
 
 Relatives of Brazilian journalist Guilherme Marques, who died in a plane accident that crashed into Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, mourn during a mass in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares 
 
 People work at the Desbravador or Pioneer Monument, symbol of the city, which is pictured with black stripes in tribute to players of Chapecoense soccer team in Chapeco, Brazil November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker 
 
 Rescue crews work near the wreckage from a plane that crashed into Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, Colombia, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Fredy Builes 
 
 Jose Tozzi, who became Chapecoense's acting president when his predecessor died in the crash arrives to attends a media conference in Chapeco, Brazil, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker 
 
 Relatives of Brazilian journalist Guilherme Marques, who died in a plane accident that crashed into Colombian junglewith Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, mourn during a mass in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares 
 
 A soccer fan wearing a jersey of Gremio soccer club comforts a fan of Chapecoense soccer team reacting at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes 
 
 Chapecoense goalkeeper Jose Nivaldo (L) reacts as he talks with Jose Tozzi, who became the team's acting president when his predecessor died in the crash in Chapeco, Brazil, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker 
 
 Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker 
 
 Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker 
 
 Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker 
 
 Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes 
 
 Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes 
 
 Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker 
 
 Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes 
 
 Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes 
 
 Fans of Chapecoense soccer team pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes 
 
 Youth players of Chapecoense soccer club pay tribute to Chapecoense's players at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes 
 
 Players of Chapecoense soccer team that didn't travel to Colombia pay tribute to teammates with relatives at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes 
 
 A Colombian air force helicopter retrieves the bodies of victims from the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, Colombia, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga 
 
 Rescue crews work in the wreckage from a plane that crashed into Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, Colombia, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Fredy Builes 
 
 LA PAZ/MEDELLIN, Colombia Bolivian authorities on Thursday suspended the license of a tiny charter airline whose plane crashed in Colombia this week after apparently running out of fuel, killing 71 people and wiping out a Brazilian soccer team on its way to a regional cup final. 
 
 Monday night's disaster sent shock waves across the global soccer community and plunged Brazil, Latin America's largest nation, into mourning. The small Chapecoense team was traveling on a charter flight operated by airline LAMIA Bolivia to the biggest game in its history, the final of the Copa Sudamericana. 
 
 Investigators combing the crash site on a wooded hillside outside of Medellin found no traces of fuel in the wreckage of the BAe 146 made by Britain's BAE Systems Plc, signaling that the crash may have resulted from lack of fuel. 
 
 International flight regulations require aircraft to carry enough reserve fuel to fly for 30 minutes after reaching their destination. 
 
 "In this case, sadly, the aircraft did not have enough fuel to meet the regulations for contingency," said Freddy Bonilla, secretary of airline security at Colombia's aviation authority. 
 
 Bolivian authorities said they were suspending LAMIA's operating license and replacing the management of its aviation authority to ensure a transparent investigation. It said that neither decision implied wrongdoing. 
 
 Local media in Brazil, citing an internal document, reported an official at the Bolivian aviation agency called Celia Castedo raised concerns about LAMIA's flight plan. The official urged the airline to come up with an alternative route because the 4 hour and 22 minute journey was the same length as the plane's maximum flight range. The reports said the official, who could not be reached by Reuters for comment, did not have the power to stop the flight. 
 
 A Colombian civil aviation document seen by Reuters confirmed the flight time was set to be 4 hours and 22 minutes. 
 
 Medellin air traffic controllers asked the LAMIA pilot to wait while another flight made an emergency landing. Details on the length of the wait and problems with the other flight were not immediately available. 
 
 Air traffic controller Yaneth Molina, who received the distress call, said in a letter written to colleagues that she had received death threats following the crash. 
 
 "I did all that was humanly possible and technically necessary to preserve the lives of the passengers, but unfortunately my efforts weren't enough," Molina wrote in her letter, which was later released to the press. 
 
 A crackling recording obtained by Colombian media of Bolivian pilot Miguel Quiroga's final words showed he told the control tower at Medellin's airport that the plane was "in total failure, total electrical failure, without fuel." 
 
 He requested urgent permission to land, and then the audio went silent. 
 
 LAMIA Chief Executive Officer Gustavo Vargas on Wednesday said the plane had been correctly inspected before departure and should have had enough fuel for about 4-1/2 hours. In such situations, it is at the pilot's discretion whether to refuel, Vargas said. 
 
 Only 0.5 percent of accidents on record were blamed on low fuel, according to the U.S.-based Flight Safety Foundation. 
 
 BRAZIL GRIEVES 
 
 In the soccer club's small farming hometown of Chapeco in southern Brazil, workers on Thursday erected temporary structures in the stadium to shelter the coffins of 51 victims - players, staff and journalists - expected to arrive back for an open-air wake on Saturday. 
 
 Some 100,000 fans, about half the city's population, were expected to attend, as were Brazilian President Michel Temer and Gianni Infantino, president of world soccer governing body FIFA. 
 
 On Wednesday night, when the Copa Sudamericana final had been scheduled, tens of thousands of fans assembled in tribute at Chapecoense's arena and the stadium in Medellin of rival team Atletico Nacional. 
 
 "We Brazilians will never forget the way in which Colombians have felt as their own the pain of this terrible disaster that ended the historic dream of Chapecoense," Foreign Minister Jose Serra told the crowds in Medellin. 
 
 Fox Sports Brasil, which lost six of its journalists in the crash, broadcast 90 minutes of a black screen in the time slot of Wednesday's game. 
 
 A spokesman for Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch said an inspector for the agency and Colombian officials would transport the aircraft's black boxes back to the United Kingdom, where the information will be downloaded. 
 
 Only six on board the flight survived: three Chapecoense team members, a journalist and two Bolivian crew members. 
 
 Some have wondered why Chapecoense used the charter company instead of a commercial airline. Club Vice President Luiz Antonio Palaoro said LAMIA had a track record of transporting soccer teams around South America, and it had used the airline before. 
 
 "We are dealing with the humanitarian aspect of the families and the victims," Palaoro told reporters in Chapeco. "After that, we are going to have to think about restructuring the team and also the appropriate legal measures." 
 
 Among surviving players, goalkeeper Jackson Follmann's right leg was amputated, while defender Helio Neto was in intensive care with severe trauma to his skull, thorax and lungs. Fellow defender Alan Ruschel had spinal surgery. 
 
 Two of the Bolivian flight crew, Ximena Suarez and Erwin Tumiri, were bruised but not in critical condition, while journalist Rafael Valmorbida was treated in intensive care for multiple rib fractures that partly collapsed a lung. Tumiri may soon be released, local press reported. 
 
 (Reporting by Daniel Ramos in La Paz, Brad Haynes in Chapeco, Anthony Boadle in Brasilia, Helen Murphy and Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota and Tim Hepher in Paris; Writing by Helen Murphy in Bogota and Daniel Flynn in Sao Paulo; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Lisa Von Ahn and Lisa Shumaker)
– A chartered plane with a Brazilian first division soccer team on board crashed in a mountainous area near Medellin while on its way to the finals of a regional tournament, killing 76 people, Colombian officials say. Five people survived, including three players, reports Reuters. Aviation authorities say the British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline named LaMia, declared an emergency at 10pm because of an electrical failure, the AP reports. The aircraft, which had departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the Chapecoense soccer team to Medellin's Jose Maria Cordova International Airport. The team started the journey in Sao Paulo. A Reuters photographer described the tail section as having been severed from the plane and totally destroyed. The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy-tale season. It joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals after defeating two of Argentina's fiercest squads, San Lorenzo and Independiente, as well as Colombia's Junior. "What was supposed to be a celebration has turned into a tragedy," Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez said from the search-and-rescue command center. "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. The Guardian reports Brazilian President Michel Temer has declared three days of mourning.