Hélio Neto went up the hill again

On Friday a former Chapecoense defender walked back up Cerro Gordo, the hill outside La Unión where the plane came down. Hélio Neto is 41. The Colombian paper said it was his third time at the place where he had almost died.

He is one of six people who lived. Seventy-one others on the flight did not. The aircraft had been taking the club from Chapecó, in southern Brazil, to the first leg of the 2016 Copa Sudamericana final against Atlético Nacional. AFP wrote this week that it ran out of fuel on the night of 28 November and hit the mountain on the edge of Medellín. Only three players from a squad of twenty-two got off the hill.

A mural of photographs is already there, headed Campeones del cielo — champions of the sky. A stone carved with the names was due to be unveiled while the party was on the mountain. Bits of the fuselage are still in the trees.

Miguel Ramirez, a farmer from La Unión, was first to the wreckage. He told AFP he still hears people calling for help. His son Johan knew the muddy paths. Colombian papers later called the boy the Niño Ángel de Chapecoense.

The club’s own plan for the week put a tribute on the hill on Friday afternoon, then the first stone of a larger Memorial La Unión-Chapecó down in the town. On the flight over, Chapecoense said the crew had paid a tribute to their Eternal Champions, and that Colombia was already a second home.

After the crash, Atlético Nacional asked Conmebol to give Chapecoense the cup they had been flying in to play for. The two clubs have stayed in one another’s company since. There are Colombian flags in the Chapecó stands. Chapecoense is still a working club, in the middle of a season, trying to stay in Brazil’s first division.

This afternoon they meet again in a game both are calling the Partido de la Amistad Eterna. Kick-off is at half past three, local time, at the Atanasio Girardot, the ground the 2016 side never reached. Eduardo Doma, who plays for Chapecoense now, asked people to come. “We are counting on your presence at this historic moment.”