RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) – The plane crash that wiped out Brazil’s Chapecoense football team also killed 20 Brazilian journalists, ranging from veteran commentators to young local reporters.
A total of 71 people were killed late Monday when the charter plane crashed in the mountains near Medellin, Colombia.
Most of the attention has focused on the football players traveling to play in the final of the Copa Sudamericana regional tournament. However, the passengers also included a large number of journalists covering the match.
They included six employees from the Brazilian affiliate of Fox Sport television. One of them, Mario Sergio, was a well known on air commentator and former Brazilian international football player.
Four others were from Brazil’s giant media holding Globo and four more from Globo outlet RBS TV.
There were also six reporters from small radio stations based around Chapecoense’s home of Chapeco in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Caterina, such as Radio Chapeco, Radio Oeste Capital and Radio Vang FM.
Remarkably, the crash had six survivors. One of them was a journalist, Rafael Henzel Valmorbida, who does live football commentaries for Radio Oeste Capital.
Another journalist who was on the passenger manifest, Ivan Carlos Agnoletto from Radio Super Conda, missed his flight and so was spared.