The Chapecoense football team was among the 72 passengers and 9 crew on board the charter aircraft when it crashed around 10:15 p.m. on Monday. It was not immediately clear how many survived, however.
Reports say the British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by Bolivian charter airline Lamia and carrying 72 passengers and nine crew, crashed in Cerro Gordo in the municipality of La Union shortly before midnight local time (05:00 GMT). According to an airport press release, it was reporting an electrical fault to the control tower.
The Chapecoense football team was among the passengers on board the charter aircraft when it crashed.
According to Reuters, poor weather conditions made the crash site accessible only by road, airport authorities at Medellin, where the plane was scheduled to land, said on social network Twitter.
It confirmed the plane was carrying the soccer team, who were due to play in a final for the South American Cup in Medellin, 245 km (153 miles) from the capital, Bogota, on Wednesday.
"Tonight it was reported that a plane coming from Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, which should have landed at Jose Maria Cordova, airport had gone off course," a Colombian rescue official, Mauricio Parodi, told reporters.
Rescue teams, from firefighters to disaster management officials, have been pressed into the search for survivors, added Parodi, the director of disaster management for the province of Antioquia.
Poor weather conditions made the crash site accessible only by road, airport authorities at Medellin, where the plane was scheduled to land, said on social network Twitter.
They confirmed the plane was carrying the soccer team, who had been due to face Atletico Nacional of Medellin in the first leg of Wednesday’s Sudamericana final, South America’s equivalent of the Europa League.
The South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) said it was suspending "all activities".
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