Bolivian President Evo Morales "promised tough action over the airline crash" that killed most of Brasileiro side Chapecoense on Nov. 28, according to Leahy, Rossi & Schipani of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The deaths of the 71 people, who also included team officials and journalists, in the crash "follow indications the British Aerospace regional jet had run out of fuel and amid speculation that it was on a flight path that was longer than its specified range." Morales said that "drastic measures will be taken" to determine what went wrong. The use of the "relatively unknown airline, LaMia Bolivia, that has no direct flight connections to Brazil" has sparked questions over why Chapecoense, a club from Brazil’s southern city of Curitiba, chose it "over a regular airline operating out of the country." LaMia Bolivia was reportedly owned by pilot Miguel Quiroga, who died while piloting the crashed aircraft, and Marco Rocha, a former military officer (FT, 12/2).
MASSIVE TURNOUT: The AP reported 20,000 people "filled a tiny stadium under umbrellas and plastic ponchos to say goodbye" to members of the club who died in the crash. After the ceremony, Chapecoense interim President Ivan Tozzo said that Copa Suadamericana organizer CONMEBOL "will declare the club champions, complete with the winners' prize money, though there was no official confirmation" from the governing body on Saturday. Rain-soaked mourners "jammed the modest stadium with four or five times that many outside to pay homage to a modest club." In total, about half the population of the southern Brazilian city of 210,000 gathered. Thousands "also lined the roads as the coffins were driven in a procession from the airport to the stadium memorial." Soldiers wearing berets "carried the coffins into the stadium on their shoulders, sloshing through standing water and mud" on a field filled with funeral wreaths, club and national flags, and other tributes (
AP, 12/4).