Plane carrying 62 people crashes in Brazil

Photo: Andre Penner Associated Press The plane connecting Cascavel, in the southern state of Parana, to Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo, crashed in the town of Vinhedo.

Agence France-Presse in São Paulo

Posted at 2:19 p.m. Updated at 4:48 p.m.

• Americas

All 62 people on board died Friday when their plane crashed in the São Paulo region in southeastern Brazil, a tragedy whose causes remain unknown.

The plane, an ATR-72 from the Voepass company carrying 58 passengers and four crew members, was flying from Cascavel, in the state of Parana, to Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo.

It crashed at 1:25 p.m. in Vinhedo, a town located some 80 km northwest of São Paulo.

“There were no survivors,” the Valinhos city hall, which participated in the rescue, said in an email to AFP. to the rescue operations in the nearby town of Vinhedo.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva mourned the tragedy at an official event in the south of the country and observed a minute of silence for the victims.

“A plane has just crashed into the city of Vinhedo, in the state of São Paulo, with 58 passengers and four crew members and it seems that all are dead,” Lula said, before the death toll was confirmed.

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In a statement, Voepass reported “the occurrence of an accident of flight 2283,” specifying that “there is still no confirmation regarding the circumstances of the accident.”

Cascavel Mayor Leonardo Paranhos confirmed on social media the 62 deaths, “a tragedy for all of us.” “We are taking all necessary measures to assist and provide information to the relatives” of the victims, he said.

“Terrifying”

The plane is an ATR 72-500. The Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, a subsidiary of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo, expressed in a statement its “thoughts” for the “people affected by this event”. “ATR specialists are fully committed to supporting the ongoing investigation and our client,” the company added.

Images broadcast by local media showed the plane as it fell steeply at high speed, and others showed a long column of smoke rising above what appeared to be a residential area.

Nathalie Cicari, who lives near the crash site, testified on CNN Brasil that the impact had been “terrifying”.

“I was having lunch, I heard a very loud noise very close to me, I thought it was a drone,” but “much louder,” she said.

“I went out on the balcony and saw the plane circling. I realized that it was not a normal movement for a plane,” she continued, saying she thought “like in the movies, to pray.”

Nathalie Cicari was not injured but had to leave her home filled with “black smoke” from the crash.

“I saw a plane fall, out of control, almost over my house,” resident Ricardo Rodrigues told local channel Band News. “I arrived at the scene and saw many bodies on the ground, many.”

“The bodies are being transferred to the morgue,” Vinhedo City Hall told AFP.

The military police present at the scene reported that the accident had not caused any casualties among the residents of the crash zone and that the fire caused by the plane crash was now under control.

Teams of firefighters from the state civil defense were also deployed to Vinhedo.

Tarcisio de Freitas, the governor of the state of São Paulo, who was traveling to the state of Espirito Santo (southeast), returned to Vinhedo to assist the work of the rescue teams.