CHAPECO, Brazil (AP) – This Brazilian hometown of the soccer team whose dream season ended in tragedy this week prepared Friday for the sad return of so many whose lives were cut short on an Andes mountainside, hanging origami figures of peace in the team’s green and white colors from the fence of the local soccer stadium.
As the bodies of the victims killed in the plane crash began the journey home Friday, gravediggers finished preparing the ground at cemeteries in the small city of Chapeco.
A memorial service was planned for Saturday in the southern Brazilian city that was home to the Chapecoense soccer club, which was on its way to the finals of one of South America’s most prestigious tournaments when the plane went down in Colombia on Monday, killing all but six of the 77 people on board.
Three flights carrying the bodies of 50 players, coaches, officials and journalists covering the team were to depart from Colombia late Friday. Another plane carrying other Brazilian victims is headed to Sao Paulo. Brazilian President Michel Temer is scheduled to greet the arriving cargo planes at the airport in Chapeco on Saturday, but is not expected at the memorial.
In preparation for the service, residents hung more than 3,000 green and white origami pieces fashioned into the figure of a crane – birds that are considered a symbol of peace – onto the metal fence at the team’s Arena Conda stadium.