Colombia Plane Crash: Moments After Rescue, Survivor Cried Out for His Crew

He says he survived by curling up in the fetal position.

ByABC News
December 2, 2016, 4:15 PM

— -- As Colombian plane crash survivor Erwin Tumiri heads home to Bolivia, dramatic new video from local police shows the moments after he was pulled from the wreckage.

Clad in a yellow police jacket, Tumiri – one of just six people who survived the plane crash that killed 71 in Medellin on Monday – sobbed in Spanish for "my crew."

“Calm down, don’t worry, we are here to help you, and your friends also,” a first responder replies in Spanish.

A clearly stunned Tumiri tells the responder his spine and arms hurt, then cries out two names.

“Don't scream technician, calm down,” the responder says. “Don't wear yourself down, technician, don't wear yourself down.”

Shortly after the crash, Tumiri, a flight engineer, reportedly told media outlets that he survived by curling up in the fetal position with a bag between his knees as the jet careened toward the mountainside.

“I put the bags in between my legs to form the fetal position that is recommended in accidents,” he told Fox Sports Argentina in Spanish. “During the situation, many stood up from their seats, and they started to shout.”

He and one other crew member, flight attendant Ximena Suárez, survived, as did four passengers on board: a journalist and three members of the Chapecoense soccer team. The team’s goalie has already had one leg amputated; the other survivors remain hospitalized.

The charter plane, which apparently suffered an electrical failure, ran out of fuel before it slammed into the side of a mountain not far from the airport, authorities said.

A government official confirms to ABC News that the jet was supposed to refuel en route to Medellin. The pilot chose not to, the official said.

The flight’s operator, LAMIA, has had its permits and certifications suspended, the Bolivia Civil Aviation Authority told ABC News.

    ABC News' Kirit Radia, Ben Gittleson, Josh Hoyos, Devin Villacis and Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report.