For those who don't know about Chapecoense, it is a small club from a city in the state of Santa Catarina that as recently as 2009 was in the Brazilian 4th tier, and made its way into the 3rd tier in 2010, 2nd tier in 2013 and reached the top flight in 2014. After making it into the Quarter-final rounds of the Copa Sul-Americana (The South American equivalent of the Europa League) last season, they made it to the finals this year, beating were en route to play in the final of this year's edition, beating along the way the likes of Independiente and San Lorenzo, and were on their way to play Atlético Nacional.
It's a tragedy regardless, but considering its rapid rise, and it's cinderella run to the final of the Sul-Americana this season - with basically the whole of Brasil rooting for them - it just makes this much more gut-wrenching if the worse comes to pass.