MEDELLIN, Colombia—Families are preparing to receive the bodies of the victims of this week’s air tragedy in Colombia as experts develop a clearer picture of how things went so terribly wrong with a charter flight that slammed into a mountainside.
Many of the 71 killed were players and coaches from a small-town Brazilian soccer team that was headed to the finals of one of South America’s most prestigious tournaments after a fairy-tale season that had captivated their soccer-crazed nation.
On Thursday, white sheets printed with the logo of the Chapocoense soccer club lay over row upon row of caskets at a Medellin funeral home. Most of the remains had been identified and were expected to be flown home Friday.
Roberto D'marchi gazes into the casket containing the remains of his cousin of Nilson Folle Jr., a victim of the Colombian air tragedy, in the parking garage of the San Vicente funeral home in Medellin, Colombia, on Dec. 1, 2016. AP Photo/Fernando Vergara
