Surviving footballer from Chapecoense air crash returns to Brazil

Jackson Follmann, one of the survivors from an air crash with Brazil's Chapecoense football team, will be operated at Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo, where he has been since the early hours of Tuesday (Dec. 13). He arrived in São Paulo from Medellín on a special flight equipped with an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), made a stopover in Manaus, and landed at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo shortly after midnight.

Follmann is the first survivor from the plane crash to return to Brazil. The disaster, which happened in Medellín on November 29, left 71 dead and six wounded, four of whom are Brazilian—the other two are Bolivian crew members. The goalkeeper had part of one leg amputated, and will undergo surgery to fix a spinal injury.

On his flight back to Brazil, Follmann was accompanied by medical staff, including Marcos Sonaglio, the football club's doctor, and a family member.

Footballer Alan Ruschel and journalist Rafael Henzel are recovering well, and are expected to return to Brazil on an evening Brazilian Air Force (FAB) flight this Tuesday.

Translated by Mayra Borges