Jet goes down on its way to Medellin, Colombia
 

Colombian authorities responding to plane crash | CTV News

"BOGOTA - Authorities are responding to an emergency after an airplane with 72 people on board has crashed on its way to Medellin's international airport.
Medellin's international airport said on its Twitter account that the aircraft had departed from Bolivia.
It's not clear if there are any survivors. But local media reported that the charter aircraft was carrying members of the soccer team Chapecoense from Brazil, which is scheduled to play Copa Sudamerica finals against Atletico Nacional on Wednesday in Medellin."

Latest rumors say there might be survivors, rescueworkers are reported to try and get people out the wreck.

Survivors?
 

BBC report notes reports of survivors:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38140981

The aircraft was operated by a Bolivian carrier, LAMIA. It was an RJ85, formerly operated by (among others) Dublin based Cityjet.

Photo: EI-RJK (CN: E2348) British Aerospace Avro RJ85 by John Fitzpatrick Photoid:6938415 - JetPhotos.Net

Flightradar24 shows the flight apparently ending whilst in a holding pattern near mountains just to the south of Medellin.

Some pictures:

https://twitter.com/360RadioCo/statu...84952558010368

Airfleets.net shows EI-RJK (now CP-2933) being stored as of September 2015.

Here's a Flightradar24 playback:

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/a...-2933/#bbef1b9

The UK Daily Mirror is publishing a flight tracker (doesn't look like FlightRadar24) that shows an aircraft leaving the hold and heading north(?). Another aircraft comes quite close then jinks away to the left. Almost immediately after that the trace vanishes.
There are no labels on the aircraft shown and no flight data either.

BBC World Service reporting that the aircraft had declared a fuel emergency.

Suggestions that most on board have survived, with the fuselage having broken in two on impact, but are hard to reach due to inhospitable terrain and poor weather.

The video on the UK Daily Mirror site is weird. At the beginning, there is a caption xyz-name/Flightradar24, then it almost looks like another aircraft collided with the RJ85 as it was leaving the hold. Here's the vid: Plane carrying Brazilian football team crashes in Colombia - Mirror Online

It's flight radar being stupid, as usual. It extrapolates the flight path if it gets no data, so you can't read anything into what's shown there.

Looks to me like a source reliable enough be posted: an announcement from the Medellin Airport Authorities mentioning that the crew had declared an electrical failure before the crash (hence the holding?): https://twitter.com/AeropuertoMDE/st...85107269017601

More survivors found (10 so far):

https://twitter.com/CaracolRadio/sta...86850702802944

The GC plotter gives a distance between Santa Cruz and Medellín of 1839 SM = 1598 NM (thank You for the correction, Portmanteau). Can somebody who knows the type say whether this is within the capabilities of a RJ85? For what it´s worth, I have talked to an RJ85 crew member years ago who said that flights between HAM and SKG (a bit above 1000SM) gave them planning problems.

Does MDE require a descent in the holding due to surrounding terrain? If not, holding while having declared a fuel emergency appears a peculiar combination.

It is a good thing that at least some survived the accident.

Wasn't this rather a long flight given the range of an RJ85?

Figures that I have for the RJ85 show a max payload range of 1,148nm and a maximum 'design' range of 1,782nm.

BBC reporting Columbian Police statement 76 dead 7 survivors

RJ85 range
 

Airliners.net




says "RJ70 - Max operating speed Mach 0.73, cruising speed 763km/h (412kt), long range cruising speed 720km/h (389kt).


RJ85 - Same, range with max fuel 2965km (1600nm), range with max payload 2130km (1150nm). "