One of the survivors of a plane crash in Colombia that killed 71 people, and all but wiped out a Brazilian soccer team, says he believes he is still alive because he adopted the brace position as the plane went down.
Erwin Tumiri, a Bolivian flight technician, was one of only six people who survived when LaAia Airlines Flight 933 slammed into a mountain south of the Colombian city of Medellin on Monday night, local time.
The other survivors were a flight attendant, a journalist and three members of the Chapecoense soccer team, which was en route to the biggest game in the club's history when the crash occurred.
Mr Tumiri told rescuers who pulled him from the wreckage that, while others around him on the charter flight panicked and stood up, he remained seated and followed the recommended guidelines during an air emergency, local media reported.
He believed his actions saved his life.
"I survived because I followed the security protocols," he said, according to the El Telegrafo newspaper and Caracol Radio in Colombia.
"Many rose from the seats and began to scream.
"I put the bag between my legs and went into the foetal position as recommended in crashes."
Bolivian flight attendant Ximena Suarez, another survivor, said the lights went out on the plane less than a minute before the plane crashed into the mountain, according to Colombian officials in Medellin.
She sent a video message to her family from hospital to say that she loved them, her cousin Ana Rodriguez Suarez in the US told CBS.
Ana, from Arlington in Texas, told CBS that her cousin had told her that she "moved to the back of the plane as it went down" and had broken bones in her legs, back and neck in the crash.
In her video message, recorded in Spanish, Ms Suarez said: "Cousins, I just want to let you know that I love you and I'm not injured as much. And I don't know when I'm going to go home, but I'm going to go home, and I can't wait to be with you all."
Doctors said that Ms Suarez and Mr Tumiri were not in a critical condition.
More details are now emerging about the minutes leading up to the crash, which occurred about 10.15pm on Monday, local time.
Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper cited crews from planes approaching Medellin airport just before the crash as saying the pilot of the doomed flight shouted over the radio that he was running out of fuel and needed to make an emergency landing.
Colombian media also published audio of Bolivian pilot Miguel Quiroga communicating with the control tower operator at Medellin airport shortly before the crash.
"Miss, Lamia 933 is in total failure, total electrical failure, without fuel," he said, according to the recordings.
"Fuel emergency, Miss," he added, requesting urgent permission to land.
That matched the account from the co-pilot of an Avianca plane flying close by at the time who said he overheard the LAMIA plane reporting it was out of fuel and had to land.
"Mayday mayday ... Help us get to the runway ... Help, help," Juan Sebastian Upegui described the pilot as saying in an audio message also played by local media.
Investigators are examining two black boxes recovered from the crash site to determine the cause of the crash.
With Reuters
