Brazilian plane crash outside São Paulo killed 61, says airline

(CNN) — A passenger plane carrying 61 people crashed outside São Paulo on Friday afternoon, killing everyone on board, according to a statement issued by air company Voepass. Dramatic footage circulating on social media showed the plane’s fall and its destroyed fuselage in flames on the ground.

“The company regrets to inform that all 61 people on board flight 2283 died at the scene,” Voepass said in a statement, revising the death toll down from initial assessments of 62 dead. There were 57 passengers and 4 crew were on board, according to Voepass.

“There are no survivors,” Ana Cândida Briski, communications director of the nearby city of Valinhos, also told CNN, adding that there were no ground victims.

Emergency responders are working at the site of the crash and an investigation is underway.

Flight tracking data shows that the the ATR 72-500, a twin-engine turboprop plane, dropped 17,000 feet in just one minute, but it is not yet clear why. “There is still no confirmation of how the accident occurred or the current situation of the people on board,” according to a statement by airline Voepass.

Social media videos of the crash showed the plane spiraling out of the sky before hitting the ground as people in the neighborhood shouted in fear. Another video showed the wreckage of the plane in flames on the ground.

Interrupting a speech at an afternoon naval event to address the crash, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for a minute of silence to mark the apparent deaths of the flight’s passengers and crew.

“I would like everyone to stand up so that we can observe a minute of silence because a plane has just crashed in the city of Vinhedo… and it appears they all died,” he said, in a video of his statement shared on X.

As the country reels from the tragedy, Lula da Silva later declared three days of mourning for the victims.

The flight left Cascavel, in the Brazilian state of Parana, and was en route to Guarulhos, in São Paulo state, when it lost signal shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. ET), according to Flightradar24 data.

It began losing altitude a minute and a half before crashing. The plane had been cruising at 17,000 feet until 1:21 p.m. local time, when it dropped approximately 250 feet in 10 seconds. It then climbed approximately 400 feet in about eight seconds.

Eight seconds later, it lost just under 2,000 feet. Then, in approximately one minute, it began rapidly descending — roughly 17,000 feet in just one minute.

The last data transmission from the plane was at 1:22 p.m. local time.

Authorities have found the black box at the crash site, Sao Paolo’s Security Secretary Guilherme Derrite said at a press conference. A medical team is onsite and working to identify the victims, many of whom are too badly burned for visual identification, he said.

Teams have removed the first three bodies, and in order to help identify bodies, families have been asked to share medical documentation of the victims “such as radiological, medical and/or dental exams,” said a statement released by the government of the state of São Paulo.

Officials say the fire outbreaks from the crash are under control. “The bodies of the victims are being taken to the IML (Legal Medical Institute)in Campinas for legal proceedings,” Vinhedo City Hall said in a statement.

One resident recorded video of the aftermath of a plane crashing into her neighbor’s house outside of São Paulo, telling CNN’s Julia Vargas Jones she was eating lunch in her kitchen when she saw the plane going down.

She ducked down in terror and started praying, she said, calling it a “moment of panic” for the whole city. Private roads leading up to the properties are now closed off to everyone, including residents, she said, and first responders are in the area.

An investigation begins

Vinhedo City Hall said in the Friday statement that they are waiting for the Brazil Air Force team to start investigating the cause of the crash.

Brigadier Marcelo Moreno, who heads Brazil’s aviation accidents agency CENIPA, told a press conference that aircraft crew had not communicated an emergency prior to the crash. “Preliminarily, we have this information that there was no information about the aircraft, that the aircraft was in any type of emergency whatsoever,” he told a press conference.

According to registration data from the Brazilian Aeronautical Registry, the Voepass Linhas Aéreas flight was manufactured in 2010 and purchased by the airline in September 2022.

The aircraft was “denied operation for air taxi,” according to its registration data. But it’s unclear why or when that determination was made at this time.

ATR, the plane’s manufacturer, says it was aware of an accident and is working to support investigators.

“What we can say at this point in time is that ATR has been informed that an accident occurred in Vinhedo, Brazil involving an ATR 72-500. Our first thoughts are with all the individuals affected by this event. The ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer,” the statement said.

CNN has reached out to Brazil’s aviation authority for more details about that determination.

Flight experts speaking to CNN said ATR 72s, which are constructed by a European consortium, have a checkered past. ATR 72’s, as well as the company’s similar, but smaller ATR 42 designation, have previously been involved in a number of accidents: There have been at least 15 incidents resulting in passenger deaths involving ATR turboprops recorded around the world.

Some people missed the tragic flight on Friday. A man who missed the flight told Brazilian news outlet Globo that at least ten people were waiting at the wrong gate and missed the flight before it took off.

“They said to me, Mister, you’re not getting on this plane because we’re already past the boarding limit. I even pressured them a little. “Mister, put me on this plane, I have to go,’ then he said, ‘There’s no way, what I can do is rebook your ticket,” the man told Globo.

When they realized they were at the wrong gate, the passengers begged the airport employees to board the plane but were told they could not. “My legs are shaking; only God knows how I’m feeling,” the man said after finding out the plane had crashed. “Thank God, we didn’t get on that plane.”

CNN’s Isa Soares, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Tatiana Arias, Pam Boykoff and Marcelo Medeiros contributed to this report.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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