Investigations are ongoing after a plane with 62 people on board crashed into a gated community in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, killing all passengers.
According to official information, only one house was damaged and no residents were injured when the Voepass plane crashed in the municipality of Vinhedono.
On Friday, Voepass said the plane had 57 passengers and four crew members on board, but on Saturday the company confirmed that there was another missing passenger on board, bringing the number of victims to 62.
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Investigations into plane crash in Brazil ongoing
The Brazilian federal police said they had launched their investigation and deployed specialists in plane crashes and the identification of disaster victims.
Footage broadcast by Brazilian television station GloboNews showed a large-scale fire and smoke apparently rising from the fuselage of an aircraft.
A video shared on social media showed the plane spinning out of control and eventually crashing behind a group of trees near residential buildings.
Rescue workers near the accident site. Image: AP
Authorities cordoned off the residential complex where the accident occurred, while firefighters and military police dispatched teams.
Voepass has not provided any information about the possible cause of the crash.
An official from the state of São Paulo confirmed that the plane’s flight recorder had been found.
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Police vehicles used to transport the bodies arrive at the residential complex where the plane crashed. Image: AP
A helicopter flies close to the crash site. Image: AP
According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, there was an active warning for “severe icing” at an altitude between 12,000 and 21,000 feet and the plane was flying at an altitude of 17,000 feet immediately before the crash.
Icing occurs when water droplets freeze and collect on surfaces such as wings and propeller blades. This can affect an aircraft’s performance by reducing thrust, decreasing lift, and increasing drag.
Marcelo Moura, operations manager at Voepass, told reporters that although ice formation was forecast, the amount was acceptable for the aircraft.
Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Henrique Baldi of the Brazilian Air Force’s Aircraft Accident Investigation and Prevention Center said it was too early to say whether ice was the cause of the accident.
The aircraft is “certified for flights in extreme icing conditions in several countries, including countries other than ours where the effects of icing are more severe,” Baldi said.
The aircraft manufacturer ATR announced that it had been informed of an accident in Vinhedo involving one of its aircraft.
“Our first thoughts are with everyone affected by this incident,” the report said. Specialists from the company are “fully involved in the investigation into the crash and its customers.”
Rescue workers are on duty after a Voepass passenger plane with 62 people on board crashed. Image: Allison Sales/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
After the accident, smoke rose from the scene
Police guard the residential complex in Vinhedo where the plane crashed. Image: AP
The aircraft was listed by flight tracking website FlightRadar24 as a 14-year-old ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft.
The website noted that the aircraft’s transponder had recorded a vertical speed of between 8,000 and 24,000 feet per minute in the last minute.
The upper limit of this range would correspond to a speed of 273 miles per hour.
A fire department refrigerated truck arrives at the residential complex where the accident occurred. Image: AP
Security forces block the road to the accident site. Image: AP
A woman who gave her name only as Ana Lucia witnessed the crash and said: “I thought it was going to fall in our garden.”
“It was scary, but thank God there were no casualties among the locals. However, it seems that the 62 people on the plane were the real victims.”
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at an event in the south of the country that it appeared as if all passengers and crew had died.
He later asked the crowd to stand and observe a minute’s silence.
