All bodies recovered after 62 die in Brazil plane crash
All bodies have been recovered from the site of a plane crash in São Paulo, Brazil, which claimed the lives of everyone on board, authorities have confirmed.
Rescue teams had been working to locate and identify the victims after a twin-engine turboprop, operated by Voepass, crashed in the town of Vinhedo.
The number of casualties was updated on Saturday to 62.
Voepass initially reported that the ATR 72-500 was carrying 57 passengers and four crew members on a flight from Cascavel in Paraná to Guarulhos airport in São Paulo. However, the airline later confirmed there was one additional unaccounted-for passenger.
Footage shared on social media showed the plane descending vertically, spiraling as it fell.
The aircraft crashed in a residential area, but fortunately, no one on the ground was injured. Officials noted that only one home in a local condominium complex was damaged.
The São Paulo state authorities completed the recovery operation to remove the victims’ bodies from the crash site at 18:30 local time (22:30 BST) on Saturday.
It added that the bodies – 34 males and 28 females – were being moved to a police morgue in the city of São Paulo, where they will be identified and released to the families.
Two of the victims, the captain and first officer, have already been identified, the state confirmed.
It added that family members will be staying in a hotel in the city to help with identifying the victims – 38 families have arrived so far.
Earlier, Capt Maycon Cristo, a spokesman for the fire department, said teams were relying on several factors to help identify passengers.
These include documents and the position of bodies about seating, as well as mobile phones recovered from some of the victims.
The plane crash is Brazil’s worst since 2007, when a TAM Express plane crashed and burst into flames at São Paulo’s Congonhas airport, killing 199 people.
At this stage, it is not known what caused the ATR 72-500 to crash.
Authorities said the flight recorders had been retrieved.
ATR, the French-Italian plane maker, said it would cooperate with the investigation.
According to the tracking website Flightradar24, flight 2283 had taken off from Cascavel at 11:56 local time (14:56 GMT) on Friday and was due to arrive at 13:40.
The last signal received from the aircraft was about 20 minutes before it was scheduled to land.
Brazil’s civil aviation agency said the plane, which was built in 2010, had been “in good operating condition, with valid registration and airworthiness certificates”.
The four crew members on board at the time of the accident were all duly licensed and had valid qualifications, it added.
The Uopeccan Cancer Hospital in Cascavel told BBC Brasil that two of its trainee doctors were among the passengers who died.
The moment the passenger plane crashed was witnessed by local residents, while others described damage to their homes.
Luiz Augusto de Oliveira told Reuters that he, his wife, and their maid were at home when “suddenly we saw the aircraft exploding in the backyard of my house”.
He said: “At the time of the collision, we thought it was a helicopter breaking down, due to the noise.”
He added that everyone in the house was unharmed and while there was some damage, it was “as minimal as possible, it was material goods. I just have to thank God for the way the aircraft crashed.”
Another resident, Nathalie Cicari, told CNN Brasil she had been having lunch when she heard a “very loud noise very close by”, describing it like the sound of a drone but “much louder”.
“I went out on the balcony and saw the plane spinning. Within seconds, I realised that it was not a normal movement for a plane.”
Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, expressed solidarity with the families and friends of the victims at an event where he was speaking.
“I have to be the bearer of very bad news and I would like everyone to stand up so that we can have a minute of silence,” he told his audience.
He posted on social media that news of the crash was “very sad”. “All my solidarity to the families and friends of the victims,” he said.
São Paulo’s state Governor, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, has declared three days of mourning.
