'You Could Breathe the Pain': '61 Plane Wreck Found

It was carrying players for a top Chilean soccer team
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 9, 2015 10:44 AM CST
'You Could Breathe the Pain': '61 Plane Wreck Found
In this Jan. 26, 2015 photo provided by Leonardo Albornoz, a group of Chilean mountaineers pose for a photo on what they say is the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Andes 54 years ago.   (AP Photo/Leonardo Albornoz)

Mountaineers in Chile say they've discovered what's left of a plane that disappeared in 1961. The plane crashed in the Andes; all those aboard were believed to have died. The BBC and AP give the number as 24, while AFP reports it was 34. Eight of them were on a top Chilean soccer team that was returning from a match, the BBC reports. "It was a breathtaking moment when we found the wreckage," a climber tells the BBC, saying he "felt the powerful energy of the place. You could breathe the pain."

The mountaineers' findings include a propeller and human remains, they say. "The plane is more than (10,000 feet) up the mountain. Quite a bit of the fuselage is still there, a lot of things scattered over the area, including human bones. So this story is getting a rewrite since this is not where original accounts said," a climber tells AFP. Previous claims said the plane was spotted near Linares, Chile. The team is keeping the exact location of the site to themselves to prevent tourists from gathering there, the BBC reports. (More Chile stories.)

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