Airline chief arrested after Colombia plane crash

La Paz : Bolivian officials arrested the head of LAMIA Airlines on Tuesday after a crash involving one of the charter firm's planes which killed a Brazilian football team and dozens of others.

Gustavo Vargas, director general of the Bolivian charter firm, was arrested as part of a probe into the November 29 crash which claimed the lives of 71 people, including all but a handful of players from Chapecoense Real football club.

"There was an arrest order for the director of the company," said prosecutor Ivan Quintanilla, who told reporters he had issued arrest orders for six people in connection with the crash, including a secretary and a mechanic at the airline.

Aviation officials also removed documents from LAMIA's offices as part of the probe, media reported.

LAMIA Airlines is a Bolivian-registered charter company that specializes in flying Latin American football clubs.

Chapecoense had been enjoying a fairy tale season until the crash, and at the time of the accident were en route to a championship game which they were tipped to win.

The flight crashed into the Colombian mountains not far from the city of Medellin. Of 77 people onboard, 71 were killed.

Meanwhile, officials said a senior Bolivian aviation official who authorized the flight, Celia Castedo, had fled the country and was seeking asylum in Brazil.

"Celia sought refuge in Brazil yesterday in (the town of) Corumba" in Mato Grosso state near the border of Bolivia, an government official told AFP in the capital Brasilia.