Colombia Plane Crash Was Co-Pilot's First Flight With the Airline
Journalist Jorge Arias said his daughter was trying to rack up flying hours.
— -- The co-pilot of the plane that crashed Monday night in Colombia and killed 71 people was completing her first flight with LaMia, the Bolivian airline chartered to operate flight 2933, her father said in an emotional interview.
Sisy Arias was trying to build up her flying hours, according to her father, Jorge Arias, a Bolivian journalist.
Jorge Arias said he doesn't blame anyone for the crash but he is upset at the pilot for miscalculating how much gas much has was left on the aircraft and what was needed to land safely. He also said he cannot blame the air traffic controller for making the pilot wait because the controller didn't know the full extent of how low the plane was on fuel.
"Those five minutes cost all of those people their lives," Jorge Arias told reporters, calling the tragedy a "direct flight over there to the sun" and a "flight without a return."
Arias' last words to her father were, "Don't worry. We'll see each other Saturday," Jorge Arias said.
"And Saturday will come, but without her," the grieving father said.
Charter Plane Crashes in Colombia
The charter flight was carrying Chapecoense, a Brazilian soccer team on its way from Bolivia to play against Medellin's Atletico Nacional in the finals of the 2016 Copa Sudamericana on Wednesday.
The plane did not have enough of the required reserve fuel needed in case of an emergency, Aerocivil, Colombia's civil aviation authority, announced Wednesday. The plane suffered an electrical failure before the crash, according to the official Twitter account for Jose Maria Cordova International Airport.
Six people survived the crash, including three players, two crew members and a journalist.
