From Hillsborough to the Chapecoense disaster, five moments of tragedy which shook football

November 29, 2016 was a dark day for the fans of Brazilian football and in particular, the fans of Brazilian club Associação Chapecoense de Futebol.

Players and officials of the club, a rising force in Brazilian football, were travelling aboard the LaMia Airlines Flight 2933 from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia to Medellin, Colombia to play the away leg of the final of the 2016 Copa Sudamericana, South America’s secondary club tournament, against Colombian team Atletico National.

In an unfortunate sequence of events, the aircraft crashed in the municipality of La Union of Colombia after experiencing an electrical failure midway reportedly killing all but five of the 81 passengers and crew aboard. Only three of the 22 playing members, defender Alan Ruschel, goalkeepers Jackson Follmann and defender Helio Neto have survived the crash and are being treated for their injuries.

The club, which had been promoted to the Brazilian first division in 2014 had been improving on its league position every year: 15th in its first season, then 14th and ninth this season with one game to go. They had also defeated Argentine giants Independiente and San Lorenzo on their way to the final. This was a club on its way up the footballing ladder and on a budget inferior to its most of its contemporaries.

Coach Caio Júnior, also aboard the aircraft, was optimistic back in September. “Our team really reminds me of Leicester, a team from an unfancied city that was able to win an important title,” he said after a league win over Fluminense. “I want to make a mark this season with this club, this group of players.”

Here are five other occasions which shocked the footballing world.

The world’s deadliest stadium disaster

The Estadio Nacional disaster of 1964 claimed more lives than any other stadium-related disaster in history, the final toll, unconfirmed by some reports, standing at 328.

Peru, facing off against Argentina in an Olympic qualifier in Lima, needed a draw against their highly-fancied South American opponents to keep their hopes of progress alive. With Argentina leading 1-0 and 13 minutes to go, the home side had a goal disallowed which incensed the crowd.

Two pitch invaders were then mercilessly beaten by stadium security and police officials at which point the crowd starting pelting missiles, followed by the use of tear gas by law enforcement, escalating into a full-blown riot inside a matter of minutes.

After this, the rest of the tournament would be cancelled and Argentina qualified by virtue of being group toppers at that moment. Peru would lose a playoff against Brazil for the other spot. Hungary would go on to win the 1964 Olympic football tournament with Argentina and Brazil crashing out at the group stages.

A triumph 19 years in the making

Zambia have never qualified for the World Cup in their history but the Chipolopolo of 1993 came within a match of qualifying for the 1994 edition held in the United States.

The fact that makes this even more remarkable is that a mere eight weeks back, a Zambian Air Force Buffalo DHC-5D with 18 national team members had crashed in Libreville, Gabon while on their way to a World Cup qualifier against Senegal in Dakar.

Kalushi Bwalya, the captain had not made the journey as his contract with PSV Eindhoven meant that he had made travel arrangements other to those of his teammates, plying their trade within the Zambian Premier League.

Bwalya would captain a new team which travelled to Morocco, needing only a draw to qualify but would lose 1-0. Bwalya and Zambia did not give up and heroically made their way to the final of the African Cup of Nations, only to fall 1-2 to Nigeria, returning home to a nation united by their mesmerising run just months after tragedy.

In 2012, the Copper Bullets and Bwalya, by then the president of the Football Association of Zambia, would finally have their triumph when Stoppila Sunzu’s penalty brought a 8-7 triumph in sudden death against continental heavyweights Ivory Coast.

The location? Libreville, Gabon. It was a triumph 19 years in the making.

The fatal shooting of Andres Escobar

Atletico Nacional, Chapocoense’s would-be opponents in the Copa Sudamericana final have a chequered history, and at one time were owned by notorious drug baron, Pablo Escobar.

His namesake, Andres, a defender for Atletico and the Colombian national team, was the crown jewel in a golden generation of players also famous for Carlos Valderamma and Rene Higuita.

Heading into the 1994 World Cup, Colombia had thrashed Argentina 5-0 in South American qualification and were one of the favourites for the trophy. Andres had shown for club and country and had been offered a contract by a legendary AC Milan team containing Marco Van Basten and co.

Colombia drew against Romania, then an own goal by Andres would cause them to lose 2-1 against the hosts USA as they took an early flight home. Back home, Andres would write an editorial for El Tiempo stating “life goes on”.

Nine days after that own goal, Escobar would be gunned down in front of a bar by mafia hitmen, sending the world football fraternity into mourning. Twenty two years after his death, the reasons for Escobar’s murder still remain unknown.

Munich and the Busby Babes

Almost 14 and a half years before eleven Israeli athletes and one German policeman were taken hostage and brutally murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September during the Munich Olympics of 1972, the city was witness to another sporting disaster.

Under manager Matt Busby, a vibrant, young generation of exciting footballers had cropped up at Manchester United and threatened to dominate English football for a generation, having clinched league titles in 1955-’56 and 1956-’57 with an average age of 21 and 22 respectively.

The “Busby Babes” were returning from an European Cup semi-final match with Red Star Belgrade and had stopped to refuel the flight at Munich when their plane crashed while trying to take off from a slush-filled runway at the Munich-Riem Airport.

Twenty of the 44 aboard died in or as a result of the crash including eight first-team members. Among those eight was Duncan Edwards, labelled by some as “the greatest footballer who ever lived.” Edwards had amassed 177 United appearances by the age of 21 and a man who had made his England debut at the age of 18.

Busby, who barely survived the crash, would manage the team for 11 more years after recovering and would go on to rebuild a side which won win the European Cup ten years later at Wembley in a fairytale finish to the Busby Babes era.

The Hillsborough 96

Steven Gerrard has been troubled by the Hillsborough disaster for the last 27 years and not just because he is an ex-Liverpool captain. The youngest of the 96 victims in the Hillsborough disaster, Jon-Paul Gilhooley, only 10 at the time was Gerrard’s cousin.

In the 1988-’89 FA Cup, Liverpool were drawn against top division rivals Nottingham Forest and were scheduled to play the semi-final at Hillsborough. The venue, though, was no stranger to such incidents, since the ground had been banned from hosting FA Cup games for six years after a stampede at a match between the home team and Tottenham Hotspur has seen 38 people injured.

Liverpool fans themselves had undergone the Heysel tragedy four years ago when in 1985, the European Cup final between the English club and Juventus had seen a wall collapse and kill 39 fans. On that fateful afternoon in 1989, police mismanagement and crumbling stadium facilities had formed a deadly cocktail, resulting in 96 Liverpool being trampled to death.

Initially blamed on hooliganism, security and police officials finally admitted their part in the mishap after several years of trials and investigations by independent commissions. Liverpool would go on win that season’s FA Cup, beating neighbours Everton 3-2 in a sombre final, just five weeks after the tragedy.

As for Gerrard, spurred by tragedy, he would go on to be one of Liverpool’s greatest captains and players ever and would play a vital role in the Liverpool’s Champions League win of 2005, a match fondly remembered by Reds’ faithful as the “Miracle of Istanbul”.