Miguel Quiroga’s father-in-law asked for forgiveness, as flight plan revealed inadequate fuel reserve for journey that killed most of a Brazilian football team

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The father-in-law of the pilot who was operating the charter flight which crashed in the Andes killing 71 people, has asked for forgiveness, amid growing evidence that the aeroplane embarked with barely enough fuel to complete the journey.

Chapecoense plane crash: fans' anger after confirmation plane ran out of fuel Read more

But his apology is unlikely to appease a growing sense of anger in Brazil, which is still mourning the loss of most of the Chapecoense football team, who were traveling on plane to their first-ever international final in the Colombian city of Medellín.

A copy of the flight plan has been circulated widely in Brazil, showing that the estimated time of the journey and the plane’s total range were the same – four hours and 22 minutes – leaving no time for any delays. As the flight neared its destination late on Monday, another flight with problems jumped in front of the team’s plane, leaving it circling while its fuel ran out.

Roger Molina, the father in law of Bolivian pilot Miguel Quiroga, 36, issued his apology in an interview with TV Globo.

He said he wanted to tell “millions of Brazilians, but specifically those relatives, children, parents and brothers and sisters of Chapecó, that we are very sorry”.



Speaking for the family, who live in the Brazilian town of Epitaciolândia, near the Bolivian border, Molina said he did not want to comment on the causes of the crash. “The word sorry does not resolve anything, but we want to ask for pardon,” he said.



Victims’ relatives and Brazilian pilots have said Quiroga should never have been allowed to set off with a flight plan as flawed as the one the company presented. There were no plans to refuel, nor did the plane have enough range to reach an alternative airport or keep flying beyond expected flight time, as is standard safety procedure.

Their anger and frustration has been compounded by media reports that Quiroga was also a partner in the charter airline LaMia, leading to speculation that he did not stop to refuel to save money.



“It was 77 people’s lives in the hands of one pilot. It was not just one family. It shocked the whole world, there is no doubt the company was wrong,” said Caroline Machado, 19, whose uncle Eduardo Preuss, one of the coaching staff, was killed in the crash. “We are very shaken.”



Brazilian pilots have strongly criticised LaMia for apparently taking unacceptable risks.



“This really was a tragedy, a tragedy that this happened because of pure irresponsibility,” said one pilot, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to give interviews. “What he (Quiroga) did was mass murder.”



On Friday Brazil’s Estado de S Paulo newspaper reported that the same British Aerospace-built plane had flown four other trips at the limit of its fuel capacity.

Another Brazilian pilot, Evandro Garcia also pointed the finger at the Bolivian civil aviation authorities, who he said were more lax than other South American countries.

“Their criteria, their demands, are below other countries,” he said.

On Friday, the Associated Press reported that one of the LaMia airlines owners, Gustavo Vargas, had served as pilot to Bolivian president Evo Morales in 2006 and that his son, also called Gustavo Vargas, headed the office at the country’s civil aviation agency tasked with licensing aircraft. The younger Vargas was one of a number of high-level aviation officials suspended on 1 December as part of an investigation into the crash, AP said.

Marcelo Chavez, regional director of Bolivia’s air traffic control agency and one of the suspended officials, told AP that an inspector had flagged the issue with the aircraft’s fuel and range but the airline went ahead anyway and air traffic controllers had no authority to stop them. Morales said he did not know the airline existed and called a “profound investigation”.

'Our club represented Brazil': Chapecoense tragedy a crushing blow to nation in crisis Read more

The bodies of the victims are due to arrive in the team’s home of Chapecó, the medium-sized city in the south of Brazil, by Saturday, when a joint funeral will be held at the team’s small Arena Condá stadium. Large screens will be erected outside the stadium for a crowd that is expected to reach 100,000 – half the city’s population.

But controversy surrounds what happens next to the giant-killing team who had enchanted this football-mad nation.



This week, Brazilian Football Association president Marco Polo Del Nero caused controversy when he insisted that Chapecoense play their next league game against Atlético Mineiro.



“This game has to happen. There has to be a big party,” Chapecoense’s surviving vice-president Ivan Tozzo told Globoesporte. When Tozzo said he had no players, Del Nero replied: “You have the youth team and the players who stayed.”



Atlético have refused to play the game. “We believe in sport, respect the pain, this is not the moment to demand anything of any player,” Daniel Nepomuceno, Atlético’s president told reporters on 1 December.

Three Chapecoense players were among the six survivors – defenders Allan Ruschel and Helio Neto, and goalkeeper Jackson Follman.

Neto’s father has said his son will return to playing.

“He has just done surgery on his leg and the doctors say he will go back to football,” the player’s father, Helam Zampier, wrote on Facebook, the UOL site reported.

