Qualla: LaMia Flight 2933

LaMia Flight 2933: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Senado Federal, CC BY 2.0. The fuel warning light had been flashing for thirty-six minutes before anyone in the cockpit said the word 'emergency.' By then, on the night of November 28, 2016, LaMia Flight 2933 was circling in a holding pattern near Medellin's Jose Maria Cordova International Airport, its four engines burning through the last traces of jet fuel. The Avro RJ85 was carrying 77 people, most of them members and staff of Chapecoense, a small Brazilian football club from the city of Chapeco in southern Brazil. They were on their way to the biggest match in the club's history -- the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional. They never arrived.

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Image: Senado Federal | CC BY 2.0

LaMia Flight 2933: The Fairytale That Wasn't

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mansoncc, CC BY-SA 3.0. Chapecoense's story was the kind that football lives for. Founded in 1973 in Chapeco, a city of about 280,000 in Santa Catarina state, the club had spent most of its existence in Brazil's lower divisions. Their rise through the ranks had been steady and improbable, and by Novembe...

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Image: Mansoncc | CC BY-SA 3.0

LaMia Flight 2933: Flight Context

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. Crash site located at 5.979N, 75.419W on Cerro Gordo at approximately 2,600 meters (8,500 ft) elevation, in the municipality of La Union east of the Aburra Valley. The aircraft was inbound to SKRG (Jose Maria Cordova International Airport, Rionegro, at 2,137m elevation). The mountainous terrain east of Medellin rises sharply; the crash ridge is visible from aircraft on approach to runway 01/19 at SKRG. SKMD (Olaya Herrera) is the secondary airport in the Medellin city center.

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Image: Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk) | Public domain

LaMia Flight 2933: Thirty-Six Minutes of Silence

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Senado Federal, CC BY 2.0. As Flight 2933 neared Medellin, another aircraft with a suspected fuel leak had diverted to the same airport, forcing LaMia into a holding pattern. The onboard low-fuel warning activated at 21:16 local time. For thirty-six excruciating minutes, the crew did not declare an emergen...

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Image: Senado Federal | CC BY 2.0

LaMia Flight 2933: Champions Without a Match

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Senado Federal, CC BY 2.0. The response from the football world was unprecedented. Atletico Nacional, the very team Chapecoense was meant to play, asked CONMEBOL to award the Copa Sudamericana title to the Brazilian club, declaring that 'for our part, and forever, Chapecoense are champions.' CONMEBOL agree...

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Image: Senado Federal | CC BY 2.0

LaMia Flight 2933: A Mountainside Above Medellin

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Policía Nacional de los colombianos from Colombia, CC BY-SA 2.0. The crash site on Cerro Gordo sits in the rugged terrain east of the Aburra Valley, in the municipality of La Union, Antioquia. Investigations led by Colombia's Aerocivil, with support from the British AAIB and investigators from Bolivia, Brazil, and the United States, confirmed ...

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Image: Policía Nacional de los colombianos from Colombia | CC BY-SA 2.0