What happened to the survivors of the Chapecoense tragedy? Your current life

this friday November 28 Nine years have passed since a tragedy that shocked not only football but the entire world. Nine years since that day when the plane in which the Chapecoense to play the first leg of the final of the Copa Sudamericana against the National Athletic It crashed in Cerro Gordo (today Cerro Chapecoense), La Unión, 5 minutes from Medellín airport. 71 people lost their lives, including players, coaches, managers, crew members and journalists who accompanied the team to Colombia.

Three footballers survived Chapecoense (Alan Ruschel, Jackson Follmann and Helio Neto), two crew members (the flight attendant Ximena Suarez and the flight technician Erwin Tumiri) and a journalist, Rafael Henzel (died in 2019, aged 45, from a heart attack while playing soccer with some friends).

1

Alan Ruschel

Keep playing, now in Juventude

Alan Ruschel is the only one of the three surviving footballers who managed to resume his career at an official level and, at 36, he is still active: the former full-back for Chapecoense, a military player for Juventude, in the Brazilian First Division. After the accident, Ruschel’s emotional return to the playing fields took place at the Camp Nou, against Barcelona with Chapecoense at the Gamper, in August 2017. After being rescued on November 28, 2016, he arrived at the hospital with multiple traumas, a compression in the tibia, abdomen and also a fractured vertebra. He underwent emergency surgery. The Brazilian footballer achieved the feat of playing again. Since then, in addition to Chapecoense, he did so in Goiás (loan), Atlético Minero (loan), Cruzeiro, Londrina and Juventude.

2

Jackson Folmann

The force of improvement

Today’s former goalkeeper Jackson Follmann suffered the amputation of his right leg, which is why he had to leave football and start a new life with a prosthesis in February 2017. This image is of Follmann, who is now 33 years old, with his family congratulating Chapecoense on Monday for their promotion to First Division. He gives talks on personal improvement, is a commentator and began a career as a singer.

3

Net Helium

Withdrawal despite a great fight

Helio Neto was the last to be rescued. The then Chapecoense central defender, who is now 40 years old, was in critical condition and underwent surgery on several occasions. In January 2017 he managed to walk again on his own and, when he was discharged, he tried to resume his career, but. He only played a few friendly games. Despite his great fight, the Brazilian center back was unable to compete again at an official level. Helio Neto explained that days before the tragedy he dreamed about the accident. Among his activities, he gives lectures. This past November 20, he carried the Olympic torch at the opening of the Santa Catarina Open Games (in Chapecó) together with Lorenzo, son of goalkeeper Danilo, who died in the 2016 accident.

4

Ximena Suarez

Mother of four children

The only woman who survived the accident was the Bolivian flight attendant Ximena Suárez, who is now 37 years old. He suffered multiple injuries to his body and ankle, as well as a fracture to his right hand. He wrote an emotional message for his crewmates and the rest of the deceased: “Fly high, when my time comes I will catch up with you.” It took her years to be able to fly again (she required psychological treatment for a long time), she wrote a book (‘Return to the Skies’) and worked as a model. On September 21, she gave birth to her fourth child, Aaron. Ximena Suárez has two more children (the eldest two were born before the accident) and a daughter, Alana.

5

Erwin Tumiri

Survived another accident

Bolivian Erwin Tumiri, a flight technician who is now 33 years old, was reborn once again when in 2021 he survived a bus accident on the road from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz, in Bolivia. The bus in which he was traveling fell into a ravine and 21 people died. Tumiri, an airplane mechanic who suffered various injuries in the Chapecoense tragedy but of lesser severity than the rest of the survivors, continued working on issues related to aeronautics and also gives talks.