• Rafael Henzel fell ill after playing football with friends • Brazilian club says he was ‘a symbol of club’s reconstruction’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A journalist who was one of the six survivors of the Chapecoense football team air crash has died after a heart attack.

Chapecoense tragedy one year on: victims’ loved ones tell their story Read more

Rafael Henzel, who was 45, died in the southern Brazilian city of Chapeco. Radio Oeste Capital, where Henzel worked, said he died on Tuesday in a local hospital after feeling ill during a football match with friends. Chapecoense described him as a “symbol of the club’s reconstruction”.

Henzel, three Chapecoense players and two LaMia airline workers survived the November 2016 accident, which killed 71 people, including 19 players of the Brazilian club that was en route to the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final against Atlético Nacional.

Chapecoense were later declared posthumous champions of South America’s second-most prestigious tournament.