Brazil begins repatriation of Chapecoense plane crash victims
The remains of several Brazilians who died in the Colombian plane crash have been repatriated to Chapeco, home of the football team that lost 19 members of its squad in the tragedy.
Brazilian and Colombian soldiers loaded the coffins bearing the remains of some of the 71 victims of Monday's crash onto a cargo plane as a priest said a prayer in Spanish.
It was the first of three flights that will carry the bodies of the 64 Brazilian victims home on Friday.
A convoy carrying the dead made its way from a funeral home in the Colombian city of Medellin to Rionegro airport, where coffins were solemnly accompanied by a military guard of honour.
Chapecoense football team were on their way to play in the final of the Copa Sudamericana - the biggest match in the club's history.
The city of Chapeco is planning a large memorial service on Saturday to honour the dead. Temporary structures in the team's stadium will shelter the coffins of players, staff and journalists for an open-air wake.
Some 100,000 fans, about half the city's population, are likely to attend, as is Gianni Infantino, president of world soccer governing body FIFA.
Earlier, the bodies of five flight crew members killed in the crash were sent home to their native Bolivia.
Black box recordings appeared to show the plane had run out of fuel shortly before it crashed in the mountains.
The pilot's father-in-law, Roger Pinto Molina, apologised to the Brazilian people, after the publication of documents from Bolivian aviation authorities showing the airline ignored advice to use an alternative flight plan.