United for the last time: Brazilian football team pose together in front of passenger jet before doomed flight which crashed in Colombian mountains, killing 76 on Board

United for the last time, this is the Brazilian football team posing together in front of a passenger jet before their doomed flight crashed in Colombia, killing 76 on board.

Chapecoense team members were pictured together in Bolivia ahead of take-off just days before the biggest game in the club's history, the Copa Sudamerica final.

But their journey to the Colombian city of Medellin came to a devastating end when the jet crashed down in remote mountains.

The Avro RJ85 plane, which was carrying nine crew, crashed at about 10.15pm after suffering power failures while flying through the mountainous Antioquia Department on its way from Bolivia. Local officials said it crashed against a hill and broke in two. 

Heartbreaking images have since emerged online showing devastated players who were not travelling with the team sitting in Chapecoense's empty club changing room.

Separate images show two footballers, Defender Alan Ruschel and goalkeeper Danilo Padilha, posing for selfies during the journey from Brazil with Ruschel, 27, telling fans: 'We’re coming Colombia.'

Both Ruschel and Danilo were pulled alive from the wreckage along with three others. Goalkeeper Jacson Follmann as well as passengers Rafael Correa Gobbato and Ximena Suarez also survived, officials said.

There are reports that the team had to change their flight and board the doomed aircraft after Brazilian aviation authorities prevented them from taking a charter plane. 

United for the last time, this is the Brazilian football team posing together in front of a passenger jet before their doomed flight crashed in Colombia, killing 76 on board.

Images show two footballers, Defender Alan Ruschel (right in the two pictures) and goalkeeper Danilo Padilha (next to Ruschel), posing for selfies during the journey from Brazil with Ruschel, 27, telling fans: 'We’re coming Colombia'. Both Ruschel and Danilo were pulled alive from the wreckage.

Wreckage: A plane carrying 72 passengers including the top flight Brazilian football team Chapecoense has crashed in Colombia.

Emergency: Alan Ruschel is said to have suffered head injuries in the crash in the remote Colombian mountains.

Medical staff from the San Juan de Dios hospital transfer 27-year-old Brazilian footballer Alan Ruschel after he as pulled alive from the wreckage of the crash.

Rescue bid: Pictures from the scene show the crumpled remains of the aircraft after it crashed down in Colombia.

Flight path: Images posted online show the moment the plane disappeared from the radar over a remote part of Colombia.

Rescuers have faced difficulty reaching the remote crash sites with stretchers being carried down to waiting ambulances.

Heartbreaking images have also emerged online showing devastated players who were not travelling with the team sitting in the empty club changing room.

As officials revealed 25 bodies had already been recovered, rescue teams were forced to suspend their operations amid heavy rain in the mountainous region. 

A video published on the Chapecoense Facebook page showed team members readying for their journey earlier on Monday in Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport.

The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy tale season. It joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals - the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament - after defeating Argentina's San Lorenzo.

'May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests travelling with our delegation' the club said in a brief statement on its Facebook page. The players looked happy and relaxed as they waited for permission to board.

The mayor of La Ceja, a nearby town, said on local radio, citing firefighters, that at least 25 people had been killed in the crash and about five survivors had been rescued - but few official figures were yet available.

Ambulances ferrying survivors to hospital can only get to within 30 minutes walk of the spot where the plane has crashed near the  town of La Unión, it has emerged. 

Chapecoense left back Dener Assunção posted this image of players on a flight on his Instagram account.

There are reports that 27-year-old defender Alan Ruschel (pictured) was one of just five survivors from the crash and is now being treated in hospital for a broken hip and head injuries.

The Chapecoense football team are pictured here on a plane. The footballers had to change their flight and board the plane that crashed after Brazilian aviation authorities prevented them from taking a charter flight, it has been claimed.

A video published on the Chapecoense Facebook page showed team members readying for the flight earlier on Monday in Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport.

Chapecoense players embraced as they prepared to take off from Bolivia and looked in good spirits as they gathered in the terminal.

Rescuers on foot are having to stretcher survivors through fog which prevents them from seeing more than a few feet in front of them, local radio reported. They are then put into lorries which drive them another 700 metres to the waiting ambulances. 

The pilots and cabin crew on board the plane that crashed were all Bolivian while most of the passengers were Brazilian and about 40 were part of the Chapecoense delegation.

They included 20 players, the manager Caio Junior and four other members of his coaching team including an assistant manager, a personal trainer, a kinesiologist and a masseur who is said to be among the survivors.

The club's president and vice-president were also on board along with other club managers. The team were only about five minutes from their destination when they crashed. 

Among those believed to have perished on the flight to Medellin are dozens of sports journalists and well-known football commentators making their way to report on Chapecoense's history-making game. 

They include a six-strong team from FOX Sports, three reporters from Brazil's main Globo TV channel, among a total of 21 members of the media. 

Among the team from FOX, which was broadcasting the game, were famous commentators Devair Pascovicci and Mario Sergio, as well as respected football journalist Victorino Chermont.  

Shocking images showed passengers being rescued from the scene of the crash including Brazilian journalist Rafael Henze.

Defender Alan Ruschel (pictured on a stretcher) and goalkeeper Danilo Padilha from the top Brazilian side Chapecoense posed for a short video on board a passenger plane as Ruschel, 27, told fans: 'We’re coming Colombia.'

Ambulances ferrying survivors to hospital can only get to within 30 minutes walk of the spot where the plane has crashed near the town of La Unión, it has emerged.

Images from the site reveal the mangled wreckage of the plane and what appears to be a muddied outfit with the emblem of the Chapecoense football team.

Rescue teams faced tricky conditions and had to suspend their operation when heavy rain started to fall.

Nearby hospitals have been placed on 'maximum alert' and are preparing for injured passengers to be treated.

The plane was flying from Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and should have landed at Jose Maria Cordova in Colombia.

It also emerged Anderson Paixao, the trainer of both Chapecoense and the Brazilian national side, is among those not accounted for. 

Anderson had first been called up to train Brazil stars such as Neymar and David Luiz last year for the Copa America in Chile. 

His colleague, Chapecoense's physio Rafael Gobbato is also believed to be among the dead. 

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the new mayor-elect of Chapeco escaped the doomed flight - despite being on the list of those on board. Luciano Bulligon had planned to join his town's team for their crucial match but changed his mind at the last minute, saying his schedule was too full. 

Some of the lorries are getting stuck in mud which is making the rescue more difficult. Witnesses said they have seen five people rescued so far.

Hypothermia is another concern for those who have survived, because it is only five degrees Celsius. Nearby hospitals have been placed on 'maximum alert' and are preparing for injured passengers to be treated.

Flight tracking service Flightradar24 said on Twitter the last tracking signal from flight 2933 had been received when it was at 15,500 feet, about 19 miles from its destination, which sits at an altitude of 7,000 feet.

The Avro RJ85 was produced by a company that is now part of UK's BAE Systems.  A civilian aviation database website says that the plane that it made its first flight on March 1999.

Statistics from planespotters.net show that the regional plane has had several owners since.

A post on the Instagram account of player Filipe Machado (left) showed a picture of an aircraft and a message saying: 'Already in Bolivia, now we're going direct to Medellin, Colombia'

Hypothermia is another concern for those who have survived, beacuse it is only five degrees Celsius.

The commander of the Fire Department of La Union reported that five people were being treated at the scene, while the Medellin airport said there were just five survivors.

A local mayor in Colombia says that at least three passengers have been rescued alive from the crash site after a plane carrying a Brazilian soccer team went down near Medellin.

The chartered aircraft with 81 people on board, including Brazilian first division soccer team Chapecoense which was heading to Colombia for a regional tournament final, crashed on its way to Medellin's international airport.

From 1999 to 2007, it was owned by Mesaba Aviation in the U.S. before it was transferred. The plane has been in the hands of Bolivian airline LAMIA since October 2013.

British Aerospace, which is now known as BAE Systems, says that the first 146 plane took off in 1981 and that just under 400 - including its successor Avro RJ - were built in total in the U.K. through November 2003.

It says around 220 of are still in service in a variety of roles, including aerial firefighting and overnight freight services.

There are reports that the plane was 17 years old and that the team had taken the charter flight out of Bolivia when Brazilian aviation authorities barred the club from chartering a Bolivian plane direct from Sau Paulo to Medellin.

Instead they had to take a commercial flight to Santa Cruz de La Sierra in Bolivia, where they got the plane that crashed, reports in Brazil have claimed.

Hugo Botero Lopez, mayor of La Union, told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo: 'There are firemen from La Union, Rionegro, El Carmen de Vibroal, La Ceja, there are more than 90 lifeguards, but it is not easy to get people who are alive.' 

The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by charter airline LaMia, declared an emergency at 10pm local time on Monday because of an electrical failure.

Pictured is the plane that crashed in Colombia on Monday night after reportedly suffering power failures,

It's a tragedy of huge proportions,' Medellin's Mayor Federico Gutierrez told Blu Radio on his way to the site in a mountainous area outside the city where the chartered aircraft is believed to have crashed shortly before midnight local time.

Local media in Colombia are reporting that a male passenger has arrived in an ambulance to a hospital near Medellin.

Blu Radio said the passenger arrived on a stretcher with an oxygen mask and covered in a blanket. He appeared to be alive.

'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 managment 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.

HOW CHAPECOENSE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FAIRY TALE SEASON

Why were Chapecoense heading to Colombia?

Chapecoense were due to play in the final of the Copa Sudamericana on Wednesday, which is South America's secondary club competition - an equivalent to the Europa League in Europe.

They were going to face Colombian side Atletico Nacional in the first match of the two-legged final. A video was uploaded by the club to social media showing the players heading on to the flight.

Chapecoense edged Argentinian side San Lorenzo 1-1 on away goals in the semi-final to become the first Brazilian club to reach a major final in South America since 2013.

After the victory, they were described as 'an unglamorous but growing club' by ESPN.

When were Chapecoense formed?

Chapecoense are a relatively young club, formed in 1973 in the city of Chapeco, in south Brazil.

Their stadium, Arena Conda in Santa Catarina, holds 22,600.

Chapecoense would have had to have played the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana final at an alternative venue because CONMEBOL, South America's equivalent to UEFA, state the final must be played at a venue holding at least 40,000 spectators.

They are managed by Caio Junior, who has played and coached extensively across Brazil.

The team joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals - the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament - after defeating Argentina's San Lorenzo.

How long have they been in Brazil's top division, Serie A?

They have competed in the first division for three seasons, having made the top tier in 2014.

As recently as 2009, they were in the fourth tier of Brazilian football and their run to a continental final this season was rightly heralded as a significant achievement.

Who are their most notable players?

Ananias, who is on loan at the club from Cruzeiro, netted the decisive away goal against San Lorenzo that got them to the final.

Another loanee at the club is 21-year-old defensive midfielder Matheus Biteco, from German Bundesliga side Hoffenheim.

Goalkeeper Marcelo Boeck spent five years at Sporting Lisbon from 2011-2016, where he was a team-mate of current Leicester striker Islam Slimani.

Boeck reportedly got in trouble with Slimani after they won the Potruguese Super Cup in August 2015 and spraying him with champagne. As a Muslim, Slimani is not allowed to touch alcohol.

What is the reaction to the tragedy in South America?

Chapecoense said on the club's Facebook page it 'reserves the right to wait for the official announcement of the Colombian air authority to issue any official statement about the accident. God be with our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests who are with the delegation.'

Atletico Nacional said it 'deeply regrets and sympathizes with @chapecoensereal on the accident and expects information from authorities.'

CONMEBOL has suspended all activities until further notice.

Chapecoense were set to play Colombian team Atletico Nacional in the South American club tournament's final on Wednesday, with the return fixture in Brazil on December 7.

It was the first time the small club from Chapeco had ever reached the final of a major South American club competition but they were underdogs against a club going for a rare double after winning the Copa Libertadores in July.

Chapecoense were the 21st biggest club in Brazil in terms of revenue, bringing in 46 million reais ($13.5 million) in 2015, according to an annual rich list compiled by Brazilian bank Itau BBA.

Local radio said the team were due to stay at the four-star Hotel San Fernando, an elegant hotel near Medellin's Botanical Garden.

The club's vice president said that the Brazilian city where the team is from is in tears. Ivan Tozzo said that Chapeco, a city of 200,000 residents in southern Brazil, is in mourning.

A plane carrying 72 passengers including a Brazilian football team has crashed in Colombia (pictured, Medellin Airport, where the team were travelling to)

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Footballers around the world paid tribute to the team today with England captain Wayne Rooney among those taking to Twitter

Former Real Madrid star Luis Figo was among the many footballers to pay tribute this morning in the wake of the crash.

Tozzo told cable channel SporTV that 'we are very sad, gathered here in the locker room of our stadium. We are still waiting for news. All our board is there, our players. We have nothing concrete on their state.'

He said that 'There are a lot of people crying in our city, we could never imagine this. Chapecoense is the biggest reason for joy here. We hope there are many survivors, at least that most of them are OK.'

The South American soccer federation has cancelled all activities until further notice.

The CONMEBOL federation said in a statement that its president, Alejandro Dominguez, is on his way to Medellin.

Atletico Nacional had said on Twitter: 'National deeply regret and sympathise with @ChapecoenseReal for the accident which has happened and await information from authorities.' 

Footballers around the world paid tribute to the team today with England captain Wayne Rooney among those taking to Twitter. 

He said: 'Sad news to wake up to today. Thoughts with @ChapecoenseReal and their family and friends.'

Former Real Madrid star Luis Figo added: 'Thoughts and prayers go out to all the players families and everyone associated with @ChapecoenseReal football club.'

HOW CRASH HAS ECHOES OF 1958 MUNICH AIR DISASTER

On 6 February 1958 British European Airways flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport, West Germany.

On the plane was the Manchester United team, nicknamed the 'Busby Babes', along with supporters and journalists. Sir Bobby Charlton and Matt Busby survived. 

Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor, Liam 'Billy' Whelan all died. Duncan Edwards survived the crash, but died in hospital 15 days later.

On 6 February 1958 British European Airways flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport, West Germany.

The squad were returning from a European game in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) when they stopped to refuel in Germany.

In total 20 of the 44 on the aircraft died. The injured, some unconscious, were taken to the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich where three more died, resulting in 23 fatalities with 21 survivors.

The pilot James Thain was blamed for the crash but it was later established that slush on the runway caused the accident.