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(CNN) A passenger plane carrying 61 people crashed in a suburb of Sao Paulo on Friday afternoon, killing all on board, according to a statement from Voepass Airlines. Thrilling videos circulating on social media showed the plane crashed, the fuselage destroyed and a huge fire on the ground.
“The company regrets to inform that all 61 passengers on board flight 2283 died at the scene,” Wolpass said in a statement, revising the death toll down from an initial estimate of 62. Wolpass said there were 57 passengers and four crew members on board.
Ana Cândida Briski, communications director for the nearby city of Valinhos, also told CNN: “There are no survivors,” adding that there were no casualties on the ground either.
Emergency crews are working at the scene of the accident and the investigation is ongoing.
Flight tracking data showed the twin-engine turboprop ATR 72-500 plunged 17,000 feet in just one minute, but the cause was unclear. “It is still not possible to confirm how the accident occurred and the current condition of those on board,” Voepass Airlines said in a statement.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, speaking at an afternoon naval event, called for a minute’s silence in memory of the passengers and crew who died on board.
“I would like everyone to stand and observe a minute of silence because a plane has just crashed in the city of Vinhedo… It appears that everyone on board has died,” he said in a statement video shared on X.
Videos of the crash on social media showed people nearby shouting in fear as the plane circled in the air before crashing. Another video showed the wreckage burning on the ground.
The flight took off from Cascavel in Paraná state, Brazil, and was heading to Guarulhos in Sao Paulo state when it lost signal shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. ET), according to Flightradar24.
The plane began to descend about a minute and a half before the crash. The plane was cruising at 17,000 feet until 1:21 pm local time, dropping about 250 feet in 10 seconds. The plane then climbed about 400 feet in about 8 seconds.
Eight seconds later, the plane had dropped nearly 2,000 feet. Then, within about a minute, the plane began to descend rapidly — dropping about 17,000 feet in a minute.
The aircraft last transmitted data at 1:22 p.m. local time.
Sao Paulo Security Minister Guilherme Delet said at a news conference that authorities had found the black box at the crash site. Medical teams were on site to identify the victims. He said many of the victims’ bodies were too badly burned to be visually identified.
Vinhedo City Hall said in a statement that officials said the fire caused by the crash “and the main risks have been controlled; the main goal is to restore the bodies of the victims to the IML (Legal Medicine Institute) in Campinas for legal proceedings,” the statement said.
Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas announced the creation of a crisis cabinet specifically to deal with the plane crash in Vinhedo, in the state’s interior.
One resident who recorded the aftermath of the plane crashing into her neighbor’s home outside of Sao Paulo told CNN’s Julia Vargas Jones that she was eating lunch in the kitchen when she saw the plane go down.
She said she crouched in fear and began to pray, calling it a “panic moment” for the entire city. She said the private road leading to the properties is now closed to everyone, including residents, and emergency services have arrived in the area.
Vinhedo City Hall declared three days of mourning for the victims and said in a statement on Friday that they were waiting for a Brazilian air force team to begin investigating the cause of the crash.
The Voepass Linhas Aéreas flight was manufactured in 2010 and purchased by the airline in September 2022, according to registration data from the Brazilian Aeronautical Registry.
According to the aircraft’s registration data, the aircraft was “prohibited from performing air taxi operations.” But it is not clear why and when this decision was made.
The plane’s manufacturer, ATR, said it was aware of the accident and was working to assist investigators.
“At this point we can say that ATR has been informed that an incident occurred with an ATR 72-500 aircraft in Vinhedo, Brazil. Our first thoughts are with all those affected by this incident. ATR experts will fully support the investigation and customers,” the statement said.
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