But the document passed to Colombian authorities claimed his LAMIA aircraft departed Cobija, which is almost 500 miles closer to Medellin - giving him an additional 90 minutes of fuel.
Fireworks lit up the sky over the stadium in Chapeco, southern Brazil, as the Hercules cargo planes touched down at the city's airport in pouring rain.
The small city is holding a huge funeral to honour its team, Chapecoense Real - an unsung club having a fairytale season until the plane flying it to the biggest match in its history ran out of fuel and smashed into the mountains outside Medellin on Monday night.
Rain-soaked mourners jammed the modest Arena Conda stadium with four or five times that outside - about half the population of the southern Brazilian city of 210,000 - to pay homage to the players.
Soaking wet from the rain, his eyes red from crying, mechanic Rui Alonso Thomas watched the procession of the coffins to the stadium with his 10-year-old daughter, who was draped in the Chapecoense banner.
'We came to every match, rain or shine. Our dream was finally becoming reality. It was so close. There's just no explaining it,' he said, choking back tears.
'Chapeco will take a long time to get over this. But I plan to keep coming to the stadium.'
Architect Alexandre Bledin, 34, said: 'I came to pay a final tribute from the fans to our team. I still can't believe what happened.'
'I've been here since early morning,' said 19-year-old Chaiane Lorenzetti, who said she worked at a local supermarket frequented by club players and officials.
'I'll never see some of my clients again. It's a devastating day that will last forever.'
During a refueling stop in the Amazon city of Manaus, the coffins were consolidated from three planes onto two, for logistical reasons.
And they took off two hours late because local authorities and people showed up at the airport to pay tribute to the crash victims, the Air Force said.
At the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, coffins were laid out on the pitch for the memorial service, which lasted roughly three hours.
The ceremony, at times solemn and at times raucous, was 'as informal as formality would allow,' said an announcer.
Fans chanted and sung in breaks between speeches, tributes and prayers.
A tent, with the coffins placed underneath, stretched across the width of the soccer field.
On top of the white tent, a sentence from the club's anthem was written for all to read.
'In happiness and in the most difficult hours,' it said. 'You are always a winner.'
Family members and friends wept under the tents. Many hunched over the coffins with photos of the deceased placed on top or alongside as almost everything got splattered by the non-stop rain.
Brazilian President Michel Temer, who had not planned to visit the stadium for fear of being jeered, arrived after greeting the arrival of the bodies at the airport.
'This event, as you know, shook the whole country,' Temer told reporters in brief comments before making the short drive to the stadium, where he remained silent for the rest of the emotional tribute. This rain must be Saint Peter crying.'
Ivan Tozzo, the acting president of the club, told fans the club would continue on, and reminded them that 'it was here on this field where this club fought the good fight.'
'This team taught us that everything is possible,' he added, recalling the team rose in less than a decade from the depths of Brazilian club soccer to the final of the No. 2 tournament on the soccer-crazed continent.
In closing he added, 'We are all Chapecoense.'
Chapeco Mayor Luciano Buligon, like several speakers, praised the aid Colombia provided - along with the club Atletico Nactional, the team Chapecoense was to play in the two-game final.
'Atletico Nacional summed it all up on its website,' the mayor said. 'Atletico said Chapecoense came to Medellin with a dream, and it leaves a legend. Legends don't die.'
The coach of the Brazilian national team, Tite, and FIFA chief Gianni Infantino attended the memorial at the stadium. The latter canceled a trip to Australia to be there.
'This is a time for pain and suffering, not for talking,' Infantino said. 'No words can diminish the suffering.'
Inside the stadium, a single set of goal posts remains - the one star goalkeeper Marcos Danilo Padilha, 31, defended in the semi-final match with a heroic last-minute save that sealed Chapecoense's trip to the finals.
His mother Ilaide Padilha stood today just yards from where her son made the fateful block. She said: 'It's a horrible feeling, seeing this and knowing my son will arrive here in a coffin.
'It's very sad remembering not only that stop (against Argentina's San Lorenzo), but also... him running across the grass with his arms wide open. My son was all passion.'
While speaking to journalists, the grieving mother asked how they were feeling, as 20 of their colleagues also died in the crash. 'How are you in the press doing after losing so many colleagues?'
Guido Nunes of Sportiv broke down and was hugged by Padilha. She consoled him: 'We're all in this together.'
On the pitch, tents have been set up for 2,000 family members and close friends of the victims.
Staff at the Jardim do Eden cemetery, where some of the victims will be buried, said they were used to the business of death; but not this kind tragedy.
Dirceu Correa, caretaker of the ceremony said: 'We bury two people every day. I've done this job for a long time, but this is different. It is a tragedy for the families, for the club, and also for us because we are a part of the city.'
Some 13 of the victims who are associated with the club will be buried in the city. The rest, including 19 of the players will be transported to other cities around Brazil for their funerals.
Colonel Freddy Bonilla Augusto Herrera, head of security for Colombia's civil aviation service confirmed his officials were told the aircraft left Cobija and not Santa Cruz.
He told El Tiempo, the aircraft's exit permit from Bolivian airspace provided the wrong information.
He confirmed they are investigating exactly why the aircraft ran out of fuel. He said he hoped the aircraft's black boxes will show exactly how much fuel was carried on the jet and how quickly it was being burned.
However, Colombian media reported the doomed Avro RJ85 jet made four other trips where it almost ran out of fuel since August.
On one flight on November 4, the aircraft flew between Medellin to Santa Cruz in a journey lasting 4 hours 33 minutes. A week earlier the jet made the trip one minute quicker.
On four times since August, the same aircraft flew between 1,750 and 1,848 miles without refueling, when the jet's maximum range is 1,842 miles.
It is not known how much weight the aircraft was carrying on these previous trips, which would have a considerable impact on fuel efficiency.
However, the aircraft crashed into a mountain some 11 miles short of Medellin after being in the air for 4 hours and 37 minutes.
Bolivia's aviation agency raised concerns with the LAMIA before it took off because the flight plan time matched the 4 hour 22 minute endurance of the aircraft.
However, the airline assured the official that everything would be fine.
LAMIA Chief Executive Officer Custavo Vargas said the aircraft should have had enough fuel for approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes. He said any decision to refuel would be down to the pilot.
Air crash investigators will also want to assess why, having lost all power at 21,000 feet, the pilot was unable to glide to Medellin, as in theory, he should have been able to make the airport despite its 6,700 feet elevation.
The crash on Monday night shocked soccer fans the world over and plunged Brazil, South America's biggest nation, into mourning. The BAe146 regional airliner operated by Bolivian charter company LAMIA had radioed that it was running out of fuel before smashing into a hillside outside the Colombian city of Medellin.
Only six people survived, including just three members of Chapecoense, who were en route to the Copa Sudamericana final, the biggest game in its history.
Reports in Brazilian media that the plane, which circled outside Medellin for 16 minutes while another aircraft made an emergency landing, had barely enough fuel for the flight from Bolivia have outraged relatives of the victims.
Bolivian President Evo Morales pledged to take 'drastic measures' to determine what caused the crash. Bolivia has suspended LAMIA's operating license and replaced the national aviation authority's management.
The U.S. could downgrade the country's aviation safety rating because of irregularities that may have contributed to the crash.
