Seventy-six people are confirmed dead following a plane crash outside Medellin, Colombia. A charter plane carrying 72 passengers, including players from Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense -- and nine crew members crashed near Rionegro, Colombia, according to the country's civil aviation department.


An airplane with 81 people on board, including players from a Brazilian football team, has crashed in Colombia, the country's aviation authorities said.

The plane declared an emergency between the municipalities of La Ceja and La Union, according to a statement from Colombian aviation officials. The crash occurred in an area called Cerro El Gordo near Medellin, officials said.

The civil aviation agency had initially announced that six passengers, three players, two crew members, and one journalist survived the crash.

Authorities told CNNe's Fernando Ramos over the phone that one of those survivors died on the way to the hospital.

At least two soccer players and one crew member survived, authorities said. Chapecoense players Alan Luciano Ruschel and Jackson Ragnar Follmann survived, as did crew member Ximena Suarez. Authorities did not immediately release the names of the other two survivors.