Swapping seat saved my life, says crash survivor

SAO PAULO, Brazil: Alan Ruschel, a defender with Brazil’s Chapecoense football club who miraculously survived the plane crash which wiped out most of the team last month, says a seat swap saved his life.

Crying in his first press conference since last month’s disaster, Ruschel said on Saturday he would do “everything” to get back on the pitch when he recovers from his injuries.

The left-back was one of just six people to emerge alive from the airliner that slammed November 28 into a mountainside near Medellin, Colombia, where the side had been due to play the final of the Copa Sudamericana regional tournament.

Ruschel, 27, said a twist of fate made the difference: a request from club director Cadu Gaucho to change seats and move further up the aircraft.

“I didn’t want to leave my seat right away,” he said in the nationally televised press conference.

However, goalkeeper Jackson Follmann also called him to move up and sit next to him.

“Then I left the back and I went and sat by Follmann. That’s what I remember,” he said.

Follmann also survived, although he had to have a leg amputated. Seventy-one people, including most of the Chapecoense team’s players and staff, died.