Listen to chilling audio of Colombian jet captain’s final moments – as it emerges plane was flying for 8 minutes longer than fuel capacity
THE plane carrying the tragic Brazilian football team Chapecoense ran out of fuel before crashing in Colombia, it has emerged.
A chilling audio recording has now emerged claiming to show the pilot’s last conversation with air traffic controllers in Medellin – moments before plummeting from the sky.
Moments later the recording goes quiet after the controller tells the pilot he is just over eight miles away from the runway.
The Colombian Civil Aviation Authority could not confirm the authenticity of the recording.
But the co-pilot of another plane in the area has also said he heard Quiroga requesting emergency landing over the radio after running low on fuel.
Juan Sebastian Upegui was in the cockpit of a nearby Avianca aircraft carrying when he heard the doomed pilot scream: “We’re going down... we have a problem with fuel”.
He revealed how his aircraft, which was below, veered to the left to avoid the stricken jet as it plummeted to earth.
Upegui said: “The plane descended rapidly and we even saw its lights when it fell past us.”
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Radar images showed Flight LMI2933 had been circling before it came down on a hillside outside of Medellin, killing 71 people on board.
It has since emerged that the aircraft was forced into a holding pattern when the airport received an emergency call from another flight which had suffered a fuel leak.
And it has now been claimed that the LaMia charter plane from Bolivia had been flying for up to around 8 minutes longer than its stated fuel capacity before it was ordered to circle.
The jet was capable of holding 21,000lbs of fuel and would have burnt through up to 5,000lbs every hour it was in the air.
But after flying for 4 hours 20 minutes with almost full passenger capacity, air traffic controllers told the pilot to enter a holding pattern.
Colombian authorities have now confirmed that a lack of fuel was one of the most likely causes of the tragic air disaster.
Civil aviation chief Alfredo Bocanegra said an initial inspection of the crash site indicated the plane was not carrying fuel when it hit the ground.
He told a news conference: “Upon arriving at the scene of the accident, and having been able to do an inspection of all of the remains and parts of the plane, we can affirm, clearly, that the aircraft did not have fuel at the moment of impact.”
Electrical faults like those reported by the pilot over the radio are a common symptom of fuel starvation in jet engines.
And the lack of reported damage to the fans in the turbines of the plane’s engines is an indication the engines were not running when the plane hit the ground.
Bocanegra added that investigators were now looking into the reasons why the aircraft had no fuel when it crashed into the rural hillside.
Police confirmed the shocking death toll after hours of mixed reports suggested there had been dozens of survivors on the flight, which was filled with players and coaches from top-tier side Chapecoense Real.
Treacherous weather conditions severely hampered the rescue operation as ambulances struggled to reach the remote crash site.
Alan Ruschel, a defender on loan to Chapecoense from Internacional,
Rescuers yesterday told how his first thoughts were for his teammates, asking “Where are my friends?” when emergency workers arrived on the scene.
He was taken to hospital with injuries as local emergency services braced for an influx of patients.
A snapchat video showing him with teammate and pal Danilo was posted online just before the crash.
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