Chapecoense, a Brazilian club soccer team originating in the town of Chapeco in southern Brazil, was founded in 1973 and since then has had few triumphs while playing in the fourth division of Brazilian soccer. The team this year, climbed the ranks of Brazilian soccer to make it to the final of the Copa Sudamericana, an international competition for South American soccer. Traveling to play one of their biggest games ever in their club’s history, they boarded the flight to travel to their first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final. The final would show how successful the team could grow from the ruins of their scrappy town in Brazil.

On November 29, 2016, their dreams and hopes of proving themselves to the Brazilian nation came to an end as the team’s plane crashed into the mountains of Medellin, Colombia. In the mountains near Medellin, Colombia, the plane carrying members of the Chapecoense team crashed right after an emergency call was made on Monday night. A Bolivian investigation after the crash has discovered that the pilot, Miguel Quiroga, ran out of fuel and crashed on a wooded hillside near the Colombian city. The pilot was one of the 71 people out of the 77 on board that were killed in the plane crash. Legal measure will be taken as the pilot and airline, LaMia Airlines, are being directly charged for the plane crash. The LaMia investigation commission have detained employees and managers of the airlines as they have discovered, in a relatively short time period, that the plane was in total electric failure and without fuel, officers not taking the appropriate measures needed. The Copa Sudamericana match was suspended by officials early the next day, Tuesday, a match that was to be played the day after.   

The team was greatly known in their hometown Chapeco, leaving the town shocked at this catastrophic turn in the team’s path to success in the scandalous world of soccer. The team made it out of the dreary town, without the need of big-name superstar players, knocking out rivals from Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. With only six people that survived the crash–three players, two crew members, and a journalist who was accompanying the team–Brazil mourns over the loss of the Chapecoense soccer team crash. The team that was expected to play against Chapecoense, Atletico Nacional, asked the South American Football Confederation, to award Chapecoense the trophy as a ‘posthumous homage to the victims’. The Chapecoense plane crash left the whole world with a feeling of sorrow and left Brazil dismayed at the loss of the 71 deaths of the crash.