Player’s Lost Video Game Caused Plane Crash That Killed Colombian Soccer Team, Missed Fuel Stop

It has been revealed that the crew of the doomed LaMia Flight 2933 was late for their departure due to time spent looking for a lost video game. The delay was cited as a potential reason that the plane arrived too late to its refueling point. The plane would subsequently run out of gas and crash into remote mountains near the Colombian city of Medellin. In total, 71 people would perish in the plane crash, wiping out nearly the entire Chapecoense Real soccer team.

CNN reports that the plane was filled with nearly the entire Brazilian football team Chapecoense Real. Along with the team members, numerous sports journalists were also on the flight, as the team made their way to the final of the Copa Sudamericana. However, the plane reportedly ran out of fuel while waiting for a runway to open at the Medellin airport causing them to crash into the mountains. Only six people survived the horrific plane crash: three players, one journalist and one crew member.

The Daily Mail reports that the reason for the lack of fuel may be as startling as the accident itself. It is being reported that a player’s lost video game may have resulted in the aircraft missing its refueling point and ultimately running out of fuel just five miles short of its destination. An injured player who was not on the flight says that in the soccer team’s WhatsApp group, the coach had laughed that the plane was delayed due to a player’s missing video game. The message indicated that the player had requested the flight crew go look for his bag which contained the video game so that he could play it in-flight. It took the crew 20 minutes to find the game resulting in a flight delay.

As an unforeseen result of the video game mishap, LaMia Flight 2933 missed its refueling point. The flight was allegedly scheduled to refuel at an airport on the border between Brazil and Bolivia. However, due to the flight delay, the plane did not make it before the airport closed at midnight. The captain of the aircraft, Miguel Quiroga, reportedly then made the call that the plane had enough fuel to make it to its destination, a call that LaMia says cost the passengers their lives.

Gustavo Vargas, a LaMia director, told journalists that Captain Quiroga made the determination that the plane had enough fuel after missing their refueling time. The statement came after the Bolivian airline’s operating certificate was suspended.

“The pilot was the one who made the decision. He thought the fuel would last.”

Chapecoense Real defender Demerson Costa was just one of seven players not on the doomed LaMia flight, but says that he was involved in the group’s WhatsApp messages that were sent just prior to the plane’s departure. Costa notes that Chapecoense’s director of football, Chinho Di Domenico, was the last to send a message on the app to the group. In the message, Domenico reportedly revealed the surprising reason for the flight’s delay.

Domenico allegedly was using the team’s WhatsApp group to make fun of one of the players on the flight who was holding up the flight in a bid to find a missing video game.

“The last message that was sent on the group was from Chinho, making fun of the fact one of the players was holding up the flight from Boliva because he had forgotten to take his video game out of his bags before it had been dispatched. He said the flight had been delayed as they tried to retrieve it.”

At the time of the message, there was no way for Domenico to know that the missing video game would start a chain of events that would end in his own loss of life and that of almost his entire team.

What do you think about the revelations that the plane crash was the result of the aircraft running out of fuel?

[Featured Image by Luis Benavides/AP Images]