Co-pilot shared excitement about first flight hours before crash
Sisy Arias was preparing for her first flight as a civilian co-pilot just hours before she was killed in the Colombia plane crash.
Details of an interview with Ms Arias which was recorded hours before the flight crashed has shown the excited co-pilot eager to take the Chapecoense football team to the final in Medellin.
The 29-year-old Bolivian woman was seen sitting in the cockpit telling her interviewer: “One thing that is very important to know is that the team is using a Bolivian airline to take them to Medellin, even though they are a Brazilian team," according to The Sun.
Ms Arias was one of the 71 people killed when the doomed flight LMI2933 crashed south of its destination.
Her father, journalist Jorge Arias said he hoped “God will keep her in his glory. My girl, I love you, I loved you and I will always love you,” in wake of news of her death.
“Dear sister, I'm going to miss you for the rest of my life, I have no words to express all the pain and emptiness I feel,” her brother added according to The Sun.
The plane was flying the Brazilian football team to the first leg of the season finals against Atletico Nacional.
Only six people survived the crash, three of those were footballers.
The team’s manager Caio Junior had shared his sense of pride over the team reaching the final, before the crash.
“We are very proud to represent Brazil and get to this final, mainly because we are representing the small teams in Brazil,” he said in an interview, according to The Sun.
“That gives us strength and pride. To pass through Bolivia is going to give us luck.”
The interview accounts come as solemn photographs of the coffins containing the remains of the killed footballers were released.
The bodies of the victims in the LaMia airline crash have been identified and are being prepared for transport by military aircraft back to their homeland.
Heartbreaking photos show the caskets lined up in Colombia’s San Vicente Mortuary.
Bolivian Civil Aviation Authority has suspended LaMia from operating.
