(Updated December 5)
The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) this week expects to begin analysis of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Avro RJ85 that crashed outside Medellin, Colombia, on the evening of November 28. Seventy-one of the 77 occupants died in the crash of the four-engine regional jet, flown by Bolivian airline LaMia on a charter service for Brazil’s Chapecoense soccer team between Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and Medellin.
The UK AAIB and Avro RJ type certificate holder BAE Systems serve as parties to the investigation led by the Colombian Civil Aviation Authority. An AAIB spokesman told AIN that the agency expects the so-called black boxes to arrive at its offices in Farnborough in the UK early in the week of December 5. Officials expect the devices to carry evidence supporting reports that the airplane ran out of fuel while waiting for clearance to land at José María Córdova International Airport outside Medellin.
Flight LMI-2966 circled several times before descending into an area some 12 nautical miles south of its intended destination, near the municipality of La Union. Before losing contact with radar at around 10 p.m., the pilots asked for priority landing and reported fuel and electrical problems, according to local reports out of Medellin.
Apart from the team members, three of whom authorities said were among the survivors, the passengers included 22 journalists, all but one of whom died.
Chapecoense flew to Medellin to play that city’s Atletico Nacional in the finals of the Copa Sudamericana on Wednesday.