The same plane which crashed in Colombia on November 28, killing 71 on board, including members of a Brazilian football team, was reportedly 18 minutes from running out of fuel as it flew the Argentina national side across South America early last month.

The British Aerospace 146 plane, which was confirmed by the Jose Maria Cordova International Airport as LAMIA Bolivia RJ85, registration CP-2933, was used to fly Lionel Messi and his team from Belo Horizonte to Buenos Aires on November 11 ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Colombia four days later.

And reports from Brazil have now suggested that the Argentina team were only 18 minutes away from meeting the same tragic fate as the 71 people who lost their lives in last month’s crash.

Messi and his team mates were allegedly in the air for four hours and four minutes – aboard an aircraft which could fly with a full fuel tank for just four hours and 22 minutes.

Citing data from FlightRadar 24h, Brazilian publication Folha de Sao Paulo claims that when the team flew on the plane on November 11, it had just an 18 minute margin for error before landing safely.

Argentine authorities insist on a 45 minute difference between flight length and fuel capacity.

The same plane went on to crash into a mountainside near Medellin, Colombia, five minutes prior to completing its journey on Monday 28 November.

It later emerged that the aircraft, which was carrying members of Chapecoense Real football club, had ran out of fuel after a refuelling stop in Cobija, on the border between Brazil and Bolivia, was abandoned because did the airport did not operate after midnight.