It was almost midnight when the radar went dark. November 28, 2016. A small Brazilian club called Chapecoense was flying to Medellin, Colombia, for the biggest game of their lives. They were the ultimate underdog story, the kind of team that makes you love football because they weren't supposed to be there, yet they were about to play in the Copa Sudamericana final. Then, silence. LaMia Flight 2933 hit a mountain called Cerro Gordo. Seventy-one people died. Only six survived.
Honestly, when you look at the football team plane crash involving Chapecoense, it isn't just a story about a mechanical failure. It’s a story about human error, corporate negligence, and a terrifyingly thin margin for error that ultimately collapsed. People often lump these tragedies together—Munich, Superga, the Marshall University crash—but the Chapecoense disaster feels different because it was so completely preventable. It wasn't a lightning strike. It wasn't an engine explosion. It was, quite literally, a plane that ran out of gas.
The Logistics of a Disaster: Why LaMia Flight 2933 Ran Dry
Most people think "running out of fuel" is something that happens in old cartoons, not in modern aviation. But that is exactly what happened here. The British Aerospace 146 Avro RJ85 has a specific range. On that night, the flight path from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to Medellin was almost exactly equal to the aircraft's maximum flying time. We are talking about zero room for a holding pattern, zero room for headwinds, and zero room for mistakes.
The pilot, Miguel Quiroga, was also a co-owner of the airline. That is a massive detail that often gets overlooked in the mainstream coverage. When the pilot owns the company, the usual checks and balances between "safety" and "profit" get real blurry, real fast. If he stopped to refuel in Bogotá, it would cost the company money and time. He gambled. He lost.
The black box recordings are chilling. You can hear the crew discussing fuel. They knew. But they didn't declare a formal emergency until it was far too late because doing so would have triggered an investigation into their flight plan. They were trying to "save" the company from a fine, and instead, they ended up killing almost everyone on board. It’s a brutal reminder that in aviation, "good enough" is a death sentence.
The Survivors: Life After the Impossible
How do you even process surviving something like that? Alan Ruschel, Jakson Follmann, and Neto were the three players who made it out. Follmann lost his leg. Neto had to retire because his body just couldn't take the trauma of the injuries anymore. Alan Ruschel, miraculously, actually returned to play professional football.
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It's sorta hard to wrap your head around that. One minute you're joking with your teammates about a trophy, the next you're the only one left in a pile of wreckage on a muddy Colombian hillside. The psychological toll is something we don't talk about enough. These guys didn't just have to heal their bones; they had to deal with the survivor's guilt of an entire city, Chapecó, looking at them as living ghosts of the team they lost.
A History of Tragedy: Comparing Chapecoense to Munich and Superga
Football has a dark relationship with the sky. You've got the Munich air disaster in 1958, which decimated the "Busby Babes" of Manchester United. Then there was the 1949 Superga disaster that wiped out the "Grande Torino" team, arguably the best side in Italian history at the time.
But there is a nuance here. Munich happened because of slush on the runway and a difficult takeoff. Superga happened because of horrific weather and a failed altimeter. The football team plane crash in 2016 was different because the "failure" happened on the ground before the engines even started. It was a failure of bureaucracy and greed.
- The Munich Disaster (1958): 23 deaths. Caused by ice/slush preventing takeoff speed.
- The Superga Disaster (1949): 31 deaths. Caused by low visibility and navigation error.
- The Chapecoense Disaster (2016): 71 deaths. Caused by "fuel exhaustion."
The 1993 Zambia national team crash is another one that haunts the sport. That was a military plane where the pilot shut down the wrong engine after the first one caught fire. Again, human error. It seems like the common thread in almost every football team plane crash isn't the plane itself—it's the people making decisions under pressure.
The Legal Fallout and the Families Left Behind
The aftermath of the Chapecoense crash was a mess. Families spent years fighting for insurance payouts. Because LaMia was a small, somewhat shady charter company, the insurance policies were a nightmare to navigate. Some families are still struggling.
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There were also questions about the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL). Why was this tiny airline, which had been used by the Argentina national team and Lionel Messi just weeks prior, allowed to fly these routes? There was a weird culture of using these specific charters to save money, and it took a tragedy of this scale to force the industry to look at who was actually flying these million-dollar athletes.
What Most People Get Wrong About Aviation Safety in Football
You’ll hear people say "I'd never fly a small plane" or "Charter flights are dangerous." That’s actually not the takeaway here. Chartering a plane is usually safer for sports teams because it allows for controlled environments and specific scheduling that commercial flights can't offer. The problem wasn't that it was a charter; the problem was a lack of oversight.
Today, most major clubs have incredibly strict "vetted carrier" lists. They don't just pick the cheapest option anymore. They look at the maintenance logs, the financial health of the airline (because a broke airline skips maintenance), and the experience of the flight crews.
If you’re a fan, you probably remember the 2019 disappearance of Emiliano Sala. That wasn't a team flight, but it was a "football" flight—a private single-engine plane over the English Channel. It showed that even after Chapecoense, the "shortcuts" were still being taken. The pilot wasn't even licensed for commercial flights at night. It’s infuriating.
The Legacy of the "Eternal Champions"
In the wake of the crash, Atletico Nacional—the team Chapecoense was supposed to play—did something incredible. They asked CONMEBOL to award the trophy to Chapecoense. They didn't want to win by default. They wanted the victims to be remembered as champions.
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It was a rare moment of pure sportsmanship in a world that usually only cares about the bottom line. The club had to rebuild from scratch. They signed dozens of players on loan. Teams from all over Brazil offered to help. But you can't just replace 19 players and a whole coaching staff and expect things to go back to normal. The club has struggled on the pitch since then, bouncing between the first and second divisions, but the stadium remains a shrine.
Why We Still Talk About These Crashes
It's the "what if" factor. We see these athletes as invincible. They are at the peak of human physical performance. To see them taken out by something as mundane as a fuel gauge or a snowy runway is a massive shock to the system. It reminds us that no matter how much money is involved or how famous the passengers are, gravity doesn't care.
The football team plane crash involving Chapecoense changed how South American football handles travel. It changed how insurance companies view sports charters. But most importantly, it changed the city of Chapecó forever. Every time a plane flies over that stadium now, people remember.
Actionable Insights for Understanding Sports Aviation Safety
If you are following the safety protocols of your favorite team or just curious about how this hasn't happened more often, here is what has actually changed in the industry:
- Stricter Fuel Reserves: International regulations (ICAO) were tightened regarding the "final reserve" fuel. Pilots are now under much more scrutiny if they land with less than 30 minutes of fuel remaining.
- Audit Your Charters: If you are involved in organized travel, always verify the AOC (Air Operator Certificate). This proves the airline is authorized for commercial use and isn't just a "private" flight masquerading as a business.
- The "Two-Pilot" Rule: Most major sports organizations now mandate two-pilot crews even for the smallest hops, ensuring that one person isn't making all the life-or-death calls.
- Wait for the Official Report: When a crash happens, the first 48 hours of news are usually 50% wrong. For Chapecoense, initial reports blamed a "tech failure." The final report from Aerocivil (Colombia) was what finally exposed the fuel issue.
Ultimately, the best way to honor the teams lost in these tragedies is to demand better standards. We shouldn't be losing entire generations of talent because someone wanted to save a few thousand dollars on a fuel stop. The Chapecoense disaster wasn't an accident; it was a choice. And it’s a choice that can never be allowed to happen again.