Brazil’s Federal Police arrested Celia Castedo Monasterio on Thursday, who was wanted in connection with the Chapecoense air disaster of 2016, which resulted in the deaths of 71 people including the vast majority of the Chapecoense football team.
Ms. Monasterio signed off on the flight plan of LaMia flight 2933, which crashed near the Colombian city of Medellin while transporting Chapecoense to the final of the Copa Sudamericana tournament.
The charter flight only had enough fuel to make its proposed trip from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in Bolivia, to Medellin. Aircraft are required to carry a sufficient amount of fuel to withstand holding patterns, diversions, or emergencies, but the flight plan was approved without these contingencies. Official reports from Colombian civil aviation authorities concluded that the crash was indeed caused by fuel exhaustion.
Ms. Monasterio had been a fugitive from justice before being encountered in the Brazilian city of Corumbá, on the border with Bolivia. The Federal Police announced that she will be held in the city before being handed over to Bolivian authorities.
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