A plane taking Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense to a South American cup final crashed in Colombia after reporting an electrical fault, killing 71 people, including most of the team and accompanying journalists. The plane slammed into a mountainside near Medellin on Monday night as the team flew to face Atletico Nacional for the Copa Sudamericana, which is South America's equivalent of the Europa League. It was Colombia's worst air disaster in two decades and there were only six survivors. Global soccer was stunned with tributes pouring in from major figures from Pele to Lionel Messi. The BAe 146 charter plane, en route from Bolivia where the team had a stopover, went down about 10:15 p.m. on Monday night with 68 passengers and a crew of nine on board. The aircraft had reported electrical problems and declared an emergency minutes earlier as it neared its destination, Medellin airport officials said. At the crash scene near the town of La Union in wooded highlands outside Medellin, dozens of bodies were laid out and covered with sheets around the wreckage. The tail end of the plane virtually disintegrated in the crash. Rain hampered dozens of rescuers as they combed the muddy and forested area. In addition to players, coaches and staff, 21 journalists had been on board the plane to cover the match, Brazilian news organizations said. Colombia's civil aviation authority identified the six survivors as players Alan Ruschel, Jackson Follmann and Hélio Neto; journalist Rafael Valmorbida; Bolivian flight attendant Ximena Suarez; and Bolivian flight technician Erwin Tumiri. Neto and Valmorbida were in "very delicate but stable" condition in intensive care, Dr. Guillermo Molina, head of a clinic treating them, said. Neto suffered trauma to his head, thorax and lungs, as well as open wounds to his knees. Ruschel also was in intensive care but in stable condition, said Ana Maria Gonzalez, director of another clinic also attending them. The two members of the flight staff were out of danger and under observation, she said. Two black boxes were recovered from the crash site, Colombia's government said. Matches were cancelled around South America, and Brazil declared three days of mourning. Atletico Nacional asked for Chapecoense to be awarded the trophy in honour of those who died.<br/>
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The plane that crashed near Medellin, Colombia, is a short-haul aircraft that was used to land in hard-to-access airports and frequently flew soccer teams across South America. Among the 75 people reported to have been killed in the crash Monday night of the 17-year-old plane, which was part of the British Aerospace 146 stable of aircraft, were members of the Chapecoense soccer team from Brazil. The same plane that crashed is said to have earlier this month ferried world soccer player of the year Lionel Messi and his Argentina team from Brazil to Buenos Aires between World Cup qualifier matches. Built and sold in 1999, it was part of the stable of British Aerospace 146, or BAE 146, planes. BAE 146s and the related Avro RJ models — of which the crashed plane was one of — can have a range of about 1,700 nautical miles, according to David Dorman, a spokesman for BAE. LaMia, the Bolivian operator of the crashed plane, said on its website that its three BAE 146s had a maximum range of around 2,965km. That's about the same as the distance between Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and Medellin, the route the plane was flying when it went down. The range is not rigid and is dependent on a plane's payload and fuel. Colombia's aviation authority said initial reports suggest the aircraft was suffering from electrical problems, although investigators were also looking into an account from one of the survivors that the plane ran out of fuel about five minutes from its expected landing at the Jose Maria Cordova airport outside Medellin. Because they can take a steep approach to landing, the BAE 146 fleet can use very short runways. It has four jet engines suspended from a wing affixed to the top of the plane and typically does not carry much more than 100 passengers.British Aerospace, which became BAE Systems in 1999, introduced the BAE 146 in 1981 and ended production in 2003 for economic reasons. A little under 400 of the fleet were built, and around 220 remain in service. Major clients have included British Airways, Swiss and Ireland's CityJet.<br/>
Mexican airline Interjet has launched a campaign dubbed #BuscandoaMika (Looking for Mika) after an eight-year-old mixed-breed female dog apparently escaped her cage and got lost at Mexico City's airport. The low-cost airline has posted photos of the search effort and flyers with a picture of the dog, a pink neckerchief around her neck. The flyer offers a 5,000-peso reward. Airline traveller Pamela Alvarez has put appeals on social media sites saying the airline didn't inform her until she got to Houston that the dog escaped when the cage fell. “They told me that the dog didn't make it. That they dropped the crate and it ran away,” Alvarez said in a video she shared on Facebook, which she filmed during her return flight to Mexico City. “I just want everyone to know what happened and for the people at Interjet to return my dog to me,” she said in the video adding that she did not know whether Mika would be inside or outside Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City. Interjet says in statement that it understands pets are important to their owners. It adds: "Up to now we haven't been able to find Mika, but we will continue to search with all means at our disposal." <br/>
The ultra-low cost carrier Allegiant Air is ending its direct service between Vermont's Burlington International Airport and Sanford, Florida. Officials at the Vermont airport announced Monday that Allegiant Air will end its twice-weekly direct flights between Vermont and Florida in March. About 12,000 passengers a year boarded Allegiant aircraft for the flights to Florida. Burlington airport officials say they don't know if the departure of Allegiant Air will mean the loss of all 12,000 passengers because a number of other airlines offer service to Florida with one stop. The airport announced the departure of Allegiant Air at the same time it noted the signing of a new, five-year lease for the airlines that will continue to serve Burlington.<br/>