Crew of Crashed Brazilian Plane Skipped Refueling to Save Time!
Local Editor
The pilot of the crashed LaMia plane carrying Brazil's Chapecoense team from Bolivia to Colombia chose not to stop for a planned refueling in violation of air safety rules, a Colombian watchdog said. The crew allegedly opted to fly non-stop due to a delay.
On Thursday, the Bolivian government suspended LaMia Airlines' license and also removed the executives of its aviation authority to ensure an unbiased investigation into the incident. LaMia is a Bolivian charter flight airline.
The plane, which was carrying 77 people, including most of the players on the Chapecoense team to the crucial final game against Atletico Nacional of Colombia in Copa Sudamericana, was supposed to stop to refuel in the Bolivian city of Cobija before taking off for its final destination.
"When the company, its representative in Colombia, submitted the application for authorization of the flight it was stated there that it [the plane] was coming from the city called Cobija," located "on the border with Peru and Brazil," the secretary of airline security at Colombia's civil aviation authority, Freddy Bonilla, said in an interview with Radio Belgrano, as cited by El Deber.
Bonilla noted that, as the flight had not been properly registered with Colombia's aviation authority, the agency "would not have authorized the flight the way it was given."
The tragic chain of events began when the Brazilian team was forced to take a charter flight from Bolivia to Colombia instead of a direct flight from Brazil, as it had intended, due to regulations of Brazil's civil aviation authority, ANAC, which forbid aircraft that aren't registered in the country of departure or arrival to conduct charter flights.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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