The players from Chapecoense were heading for a match that would surely mark the pinnacle of their club’s history so far: the first leg of the final in South America’s Copa Sudamericana – the continent’s second most prominent club competition.



It was the first time they had made it this far, and was the highlight of a fairytale season, which had already earned them comparisons with Leicester City’s surprise rise to the top of the English Premier League earlier in the year.

But instead, the day ended in tragedy.

The charter plane carrying 77 people including the team, their coaching staff and 20 journalists travelling to cover the match against Colombian side Atlético Nacional, crashed on a hillside near Medellín, killing 71 people on board. Six people survived the crash.



Although most of the team were not household names outside of the southern city of Chapecó, the deaths sent shockwaves around the footballing world.



“Brazilian football is in mourning,” said Pelé, the legendary Brazilian striker. “It is such a tragic loss.”



Plínio David de Nes Filho, president of the club’s guiding committee, gave an emotional interview to Brazilian network TV Globo, describing the fraternal atmosphere at the club. “Lifelong friends were on that flight. It was not just a group founded on mutual respect; it was a family,” he said.



“I said goodbye to them and they told me they were going after the dream, turning that dream into reality. The dream was over early this morning.”

Among the victims was 22-year-old striker Thiaguinho, who had just a week earlier found out he was due to be a father for the first time. In a video released by his family after the crash, Thiaguinho is seen dancing and celebrating the news with his team-mates.



The club’s goalkeeper, Danilo, who initially survived the crash after he was dragged from the wreckage, died shortly after calling his wife from hospital, according to local reports. GloboEsporte reported a surge of votes for the 31-year-old – perhaps the side’s standout player – in its public Player of the Year poll.



The club had been playing in Brazil’s fourth division until 2009 and won promotion to the country’s top league in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s. They had already secured their highest finish in the top flight before the tragedy occurred.



A video posted on Chapecoense’s Facebook account showed the team checking in at Guarulhos airport in São Paulo before two of the players are seen on the plane, flashing victory signs and saying “We’ll be arriving in Colombia soon.”

The club’s manager, Luiz Carlos Saroli, usually called Caio Júnior died in the crash. His son, Matheus Saroli, had been scheduled to fly with the team but was unable to leave because he had left his passport at home. “We need strength and I ask that you give us a little privacy, especially my mother,” he wrote on Facebook.

“We are strong. We are going to get past this. Thank you everyone.”



The Chapecoense player Alejandro Martinuccio was also absent from the trip to Medellín because of an injury. Speaking to Argentina’s La Red radio, the 28-year-old winger said: “I was saved because I got injured.” He said: “I feel profound sadness … The only thing I can ask is prayers for the companions who were on the flight.”





Chapecoense fans mourn outside the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, Brazil, on Tuesday. Photograph: Andre Penner/AP

The family of the striker Bruno Rangel gathered in Campos, in Rio de Janeiro state, to await news. “He is the pride of the city,” Maurício da Horta, a friend of the forward, told GloboEsporte.

Among the backroom staff on the flight was physio Anderson Paixão, whose father Paulo was part of the Brazil national team set-up under manager Luiz Felipe Scolari. “He’d been with Chapecoense since they were in Série C,” said Paixão Sr. “Like everyone at the club, he was experiencing a magical moment. He was so happy. Now he’s up there.”

A number of Brazil’s biggest sides jointly released a statement in which they put forward “solidarity measures” to help the club’s survival in the top flight. These included a suggestion of free player loans in 2017 and a formal request to the country’s football federation that Chape be granted an exemption from relegation for the next three seasons.



“This is a very, very sad day for football,” the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, said in a statement. “At this difficult time our thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends. Fifa would like to extend its most heartfelt condolences to the fans of Chapecoense, the football community and media organizations concerned in Brazil.”