Chapecoense forward, Tiago da Rocha Vieira, also known as Thiaguinho with his wife Graziele. Photo / Tiago Graziele Facebook
Chapecoense forward, Tiago da Rocha Vieira, also known as Thiaguinho with his wife Graziele. Photo / Tiago Graziele Facebook
This is the heartbreaking moment a Brazilian footballer found out he was to become a father - just one week before he was killed in the Colombian jet crash.
Chapecoense forward Tiago da Rocha Vieira, also known as Thiaguinho, was filmed in a hotel with his teammates who had a message and gift sent from his wife, Graziele.
Sitting against a wall, Thiaguinho, reads a note inside the gift bag. When he realises he is having a baby boy he jumps for joy and chants and dances along with his friends.
The video was posted online today by family members, after it was revealed the 22-year-old attacker was one of the 76 people who died in the air disaster.
Chapecoense forward Tiago da Rocha Vieira, also known as Thiaguinho, was filmed in a hotel with his teammates who had a message and gift sent from his wife, Graziele. Photo / Facebook
Meanwhile, it emerged goalkeeper Danilo, who was pulled from the wreckage, made a heartbreaking last telephone call to his wife moments before he died, it has emerged.
Chapecoense goalkeeper Danilo was one of just seven people initially found alive in the mangled remains of the jet which crashed down on its way from Bolivia to the city of Medellin.
The 31-year-old was rushed for treatment after the crash, which claimed more than 70 lives, and spoke to his wife from his hospital bed - only to die from his injuries a short time later. Weeks earlier he had posted a picture of himself next to his wife who he described as "my love".
Brazilian footballer Danilo, who was pulled from the wreckage of the Colombian air disaster, made a heartbreaking last call to his wife before dying moments later in hospital, it has emerged.
Separate images show him posing for selfies with fellow footballer Alan Ruschel, 27, during the journey from Brazil with Ruschel, 27, telling fans: "We're coming Colombia."
Ruschel was pulled alive from the wreckage along with goalkeeper Jacson Follmann, defender Helio Hermito Zampier Neto, a journalist and two crew members, officials said.
Rescuers have started the grim task of removing bodies from the crash site as it emerged the pilot circled in a desperate attempt to burn off fuel before attempting to land.
Team members had posed together for a picture in Bolivia ahead of take-off as they were travelling to Colombia for the biggest game in the club's history, the Copa Sudamerica final. But their journey came to a devastating end when the jet smashed into a hill and broke in two in remote Colombian mountains at about 10.15pm.
Danilo's last-gasp save in the semi-final of the competition had helped the team make it through to the cup final.
The Avro RJ85 plane, which was carrying nine crew, suffered power failures while flying through the Antioquia Department on its way from Bolivia. The pilot is believed to have circled around before crash landing in a desperate bid to lose fuel and avoid an explosion on impact.
Just 20 days ago, the same plane had transported the Argentinian football team, including megastars Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria, to Belo Horizonte in Brazil, where they played Brazil in a World Cup qualifier match.
The last photo before the team boarded the doomed flight.
Heartbreaking images have since emerged online showing devastated players who were not travelling with the Chapecoense squad sitting in the club's empty changing room. Brazil has since declared three days of mourning.
There are reports that the team had to change their flight at short notice and board the doomed aircraft after Brazilian aviation authorities prevented them from taking a charter plane direct from Sao Paulo to Medellin.
A video published on the Chapecoense Facebook page showed team members readying for their journey earlier on Monday in Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport. A team photograph then showed them preparing to board in Bolivia on the second leg of their journey.
The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy tale season. It joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals - the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament - after defeating Argentina's San Lorenzo.
"May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests travelling with our delegation" the club said in a brief statement on its Facebook page. The players looked happy and relaxed as they waited for permission to board.
Ambulances ferrying survivors to hospital can only get to within 30 minutes walk of the spot where the plane has crashed near the town of La Unión, it has emerged.
Rescue workers stand at the wreckage site of a chartered airplane that crashed in a mountainous area outside Medellin, Colombia. Photo / AP
Rescuers on foot are having to stretcher survivors through fog which prevents them from seeing more than a few feet in front of them, local radio reported. They are then put into lorries which drive them another 700 metres to the waiting ambulances.
The pilots and cabin crew on board the plane that crashed were all Bolivian while most of the passengers were Brazilian and about 40 were part of the Chapecoense delegation.
They included 20 players, the manager Caio Junior and four other members of his coaching team including an assistant manager, a personal trainer, a kinesiologist and a masseur who is said to be among the survivors.
The club's president and vice-president were also on board along with other club managers. The team were only about five minutes from their destination when they crashed.
Among those believed to have perished on the flight to Medellin are dozens of sports journalists and well-known football commentators making their way to report on Chapecoense's history-making game.
They include a six-strong team from FOX Sports, three reporters from Brazil's main Globo TV channel, among a total of 21 members of the media.
Among the team from FOX, which was broadcasting the game, were famous commentators Devair Pascovicci and Mario Sergio, as well as respected football journalist Victorino Chermont.
It also emerged Anderson Paixao, the trainer of both Chapecoense and the Brazilian national side, is among those not accounted for.
Anderson had first been called up to train Brazil stars such as Neymar and David Luiz last year for the Copa America in Chile.
His colleague, Chapecoense's physio Rafael Gobbato is also believed to be among the dead.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the new mayor-elect of Chapeco escaped the doomed flight - despite being on the list of those on board. Luciano Bulligon had planned to join his town's team for their crucial match but changed his mind at the last minute, saying his schedule was too full.
And Chapecoence player Alejandro Martinuccio has revealed how an injury is likely to have saved his life.
The Argentine forward wasn't able to play in the scheduled match in Colombia, so he wasn't on the team plane that crashed Monday night in Colombia, killing most of those aboard. He told Argentina's La Red radio that 'I was saved because I got injured.'
"I feel profound sadness," he said. "The only thing I can ask is prayers for the companions who were on the flight."
The 28-year-old has played for Spain's Villarreal, Penarol of Uruguay and Brazilian clubs Coritiba, Ponte Preta, Cruzeiro and Fluminense.
Meanwhile the son of coach Caio Junior who perished in the crash has told how he only didn't board the doomed aircraft after forgetting his passport.
Some of the lorries are getting stuck in mud which is making the rescue more difficult. Witnesses said they have seen five people rescued so far.
Hypothermia is another concern for those who have survived, because it is only five degrees Celsius. Nearby hospitals have been placed on 'maximum alert' and are preparing for injured passengers to be treated.
Video shared on Twitter claimed to have captured the exact moment the hort-haul plane, operated by a charter airline named LaMia, dropped from the radar. Shocking images also show the mangled wreckage of the plane's wing.
The flight radar map shows LAMIA Bolivia RJ85, registration CP-2933 crashed near Medellin, Colombia.
Flight tracking service Flightradar24 said on Twitter the last tracking signal from flight 2933 had been received when it was at 15,500 feet, about 19 miles from its destination, which sits at an altitude of 7,000 feet.
The Avro RJ85 was produced by a company that is now part of UK's BAE Systems. A civilian aviation database website says that the plane that it made its first flight on March 1999.
Statistics from planespotters.net show that the regional plane has had several owners since.
From 1999 to 2007, it was owned by Mesaba Aviation in the U.S. before it was transferred. The plane has been in the hands of Bolivian airline LAMIA since October 2013.
British Aerospace, which is now known as BAE Systems, says that the first 146 plane took off in 1981 and that just under 400 - including its successor Avro RJ - were built in total in the U.K. through November 2003.
It says around 220 of are still in service in a variety of roles, including aerial firefighting and overnight freight services.
There are reports that the plane was 17 years old and that the team had taken the charter flight out of Bolivia when Brazilian aviation authorities barred the club from chartering a Bolivian plane direct from Sau Paulo to Medellin.
Instead they had to take a commercial flight to Santa Cruz de La Sierra in Bolivia, where they got the plane that crashed, reports in Brazil have claimed.
Hugo Botero Lopez, mayor of La Union, told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo: 'There are firemen from La Union, Rionegro, El Carmen de Vibroal, La Ceja, there are more than 90 lifeguards, but it is not easy to get people who are alive.'
"It's a tragedy of huge proportions," Medellin's Mayor Federico Gutierrez told Blu Radio on his way to the site in a mountainous area outside the city where the chartered aircraft is believed to have crashed shortly before midnight local time.
"Tonight it was reported that a plane coming from Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, which should have landed at Jose Maria Cordova, airport had gone off course," a Colombian rescue official, Mauricio Parodi, told reporters.
Meanwhile, UK air accident investigators are being sent to Colombia to help the inquiry into the plane crash.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) dispatched a small team to South America because the aircraft was manufactured in the UK.
Rescue teams, from firefighters to disaster management officials, have been pressed into the search for survivors, added Parodi, the director of disaster managment for the province of Antioquia.
Poor weather conditions made the crash site accessible only by road, airport authorities at Medellin, where the plane was scheduled to land, said on social network Twitter.
Chapecoense were set to play Colombian team Atletico Nacional in the South American club tournament's final on Wednesday, with the return fixture in Brazil on December 7.
It was the first time the small club from Chapeco had ever reached the final of a major South American club competition but they were underdogs against a club going for a rare double after winning the Copa Libertadores in July.
Chapecoense were the 21st biggest club in Brazil in terms of revenue, bringing in 46 million reais ($13.5 million) in 2015, according to an annual rich list compiled by Brazilian bank Itau BBA.
Local radio said the team were due to stay at the four-star Hotel San Fernando, an elegant hotel near Medellin's Botanical Garden.
The club's vice president said that the Brazilian city where the team is from is in tears. Ivan Tozzo said that Chapeco, a city of 200,000 residents in southern Brazil, is in mourning.
Tozzo told cable channel SporTV that "we are very sad, gathered here in the locker room of our stadium. We are still waiting for news. All our board is there, our players. We have nothing concrete on their state."
He said that "There are a lot of people crying in our city, we could never imagine this. Chapecoense is the biggest reason for joy here. We hope there are many survivors, at least that most of them are OK."
The South American soccer federation has cancelled all activities until further notice.
The CONMEBOL federation said in a statement that its president, Alejandro Dominguez, is on his way to Medellin.
Atletico Nacional had said on Twitter: "National deeply regret and sympathise with @ChapecoenseReal for the accident which has happened and await information from authorities."
Footballers around the world paid tribute to the team today with England captain Wayne Rooney among those taking to Twitter.
He said: "Sad news to wake up to today. Thoughts with @ChapecoenseReal and their family and friends."
Brazilian legend Pele captured the mood of many when he said on Twitter: 'Brazilian football is in mourning.'
"Sad day for football," Barcelona and Argentina striker Lionel Messi said in a Twitter post. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Chapecoense players and others who died. RIP."
Former Real Madrid star Luis Figo added: "Thoughts and prayers go out to all the players families and everyone associated with @ChapecoenseReal football club."
Brazilian striker Neymar simply tweeted the club badge and Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas said "Good luck and stay strong!"
Former Germany captain Michael Ballack tweeted: "Very sad to read #RIP #Chapecoense Remember we are never safe and anything can happen, so make sure to tell your loved ones that you care."
Manchester United, who lost eight players in February 1958 as their plane crashed on take off from Munich airport wrote on Twitter: "#ForçaChapecoense - The thoughts of everyone at Manchester United are with @ChapecoenseReal & all those affected by the tragedy in Colombia."
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said it was a "very, very sad day for football".
This afternoon, there were reports that Chapecoense will be crowned Copa Sudamerica champions "in the next few days".
According to Brazilian sports journalist Thiago Suman Colombia side Atletico Nacional is believed to be preparing to concede the title to the dead players of Chapecoense in an extraordinary gesture.
The two teams should have been competing for the trophy in Medellin tomorrow night.
Mr Suram, who is also a football commentator on Brazil's Radio Grenal FM, told MailOnline: "The information at the moment is that Atletico nacional will send a request of [governing body] Conmebol for them to declare Chapecoense the legitimate winners of the Cup.
"The gesture would be similar to what happened in 1949, when the Torino team were also killed in a plane crash when it collided with the Superga Basilica in Italy, killing all 31 on board.
"Still on the same day, the other teams in the Italian championship agreed to give the title posthumously to Turin. 'The directors and players of Atletico Nacional have shown unanimity in what they wanted. Chapecoense will be crowned champions, if not tomorrow night when the winner would have been decided, then certainly in the next few days."
