In the minutes before the Lamia Air Regional Jet 885 crashed Monday evening, pilot Miguel Quiroga told controllers at Medellin's Jose Maria Cordova de Rionegro Airport he had a ‘fuel emergency’ and requested permission to land immediately.
‘Flight CP-2933 reports that it has a total electrical failure and is without fuel,’ Quiroga added, according to a transcript published by Colombian daily El Tiempo.
Seventy-one people were killed in the crash around 0300 GMT Tuesday, including players of the Chapecoense AF football club.
Colombian civil aviation director Alberto Bocanegra had earlier told RCN Radio that an empty fuel tank was one hypothesis being examined by investigators.
Among the data they are reviewing are the recording and the plane's flight recorders, which were recovered Tuesday.
Bocanegra said if the plane had indeed run out of fuel it would indicate an ‘act of negligence’ by the pilot, who was responsible for ensuring fuel supplies were adequate for the trip.
Colombian media were the first to point out that the plane appeared not to have exploded or burned upon impact, suggesting a possible absence of fuel.
Lamia director Gustavo Vargas told Bolivian television that the plane may have skipped a planned refuelling stop in northern Bolivia because the airport was closed, but that the pilot had had the option to refuel in the Colombian capital Bogota en route to Medellin.
The 71 dead included seven crew members, 21 journalists and 19 Chapecoense players. Brazilian Air Force planes flew about 200 members of victims' families to Rionegro on Tuesday night to identify bodies so they can be repatriated.
Chapecoense defenders Alan Ruschel and Neto and reserve goalkeeper Jakson Follmann as well as a Brazilian journalist and two Bolivian crew members survived and remain hospitalized in Colombia.
The most seriously injured of the players, Follman, had his right leg amputated Tuesday, and team doctor Carlos Henrique Mendonca said he was at risk of losing his left foot as well.
Ruschel underwent spinal surgery, and both he and Neto were in critical but stable condition, Chapecoense said on its website.
Club vice president Luiz Antonio Pallaoro told media that the three surviving footballers were ‘out of danger.’ The team's third goalkeeper, Nivaldo, told Brazilian media Wednesday he would retire from football in the wake of the tragedy.
Surviving Chapecoense officials said the club would hold a public memorial service for team members in its stadium in the southern Brazilian city of Chapeco. The date of the memorial was not yet determined.
The team was travelling to Medellin for the first game of the final of the Copa Sudamericana international tournament, in which it was set to play Colombia's Atletico Nacional on Wednesday.
Atletico Nacional has asked that the trophy be awarded to Chapecoense, which at present has only 10 players apart from the three survivors of the crash.
Brazilian media reported that Ivan Tozzo, a vice president of Chapecoense, said the Brazilian Football Federation had asked the devastated team to play the final game of Brazil's national tournament, postponed by the tragedy until December 11.
A number of footballers in Brazil and other countries have said they will play their next games in Chapecoense jerseys.
