[ad_1]
A plane carrying 57 passengers and four crew members crashed in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo on Friday, killing everyone on board, the airline said.
The plane, an ATR 72-500 operated by Volpass Airlines, crashed in Vinhedo city while flying from Cascavel in southern Paraná state to Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo.
Wolpass initially said there were 58 passengers on board the plane, but a statement on the airline’s website later revised that number to 57.
Images broadcast by local media showed a large aircraft spinning and falling almost vertically, while other footage showed a large column of smoke rising from what appeared to be a residential area at the crash site.
“There are no survivors,” the Valinhos municipality, which is involved in rescue and recovery operations in nearby Vinhedo, said in a letter to AFP.
Vinhedo has about 76,000 residents and is located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of São Paulo.
Sao Paulo state governor Tarcisio de Freitas told reporters at the scene that the recovery of the victims’ bodies for “identification” had begun and “will continue throughout the night.”
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of mourning.
Wopasi said that he is cooperating with relevant departments to “find out the cause of the accident” and providing full assistance to the families of the victims of Flight 2283.
The twin-engine turboprop aircraft took off “without any flight restrictions and all systems functioning normally,” the company said.
Brazil’s air accident investigation agency CENIPA has launched an investigation.
ATR, a Franco-Italian aircraft maker and a subsidiary of Airbus, said its experts were assisting investigators.
– “horrible” –
Truck driver Martins Barbosa, 49, was working when he learned of the crash, which was 150 meters (500 feet) from his home.
“I thought it might have fallen at my house, with my son inside,” he told AFP, adding that he was devastated until he learned his family was safe.
Nathalie Cicari, who lives near the crash site, told CNN Brazil that the impact was “terrifying.”
“I was having lunch and I heard this really loud noise nearby,” she said, adding that it sounded like a buzzing sound but “much louder.”
“I walked out onto the balcony and saw the plane was spinning. After a few seconds I realised this was not a normal movement of an aircraft.”
Sicari was not injured but had to evacuate her house, which was filled with black smoke from the crash.
“When I arrived at the scene, I saw a lot of bodies on the ground – a lot of them,” another eyewitness, Ricardo Rodrigues, told the local Band News.
Firefighters, military police and state civil protection forces have been deployed to the scene.
The military police told local media that the accident caused no casualties on the ground and the fire caused by the crash has been brought under control.
The plane’s black box “has been found and appears to be in good condition,” Sao Paulo state security official Guilherme Derrite told reporters at the scene.
The plane made its first flight in April 2010, according to the website planespotters.net.
Aviation safety has improved dramatically in recent decades, with fatal passenger plane crashes becoming increasingly rare worldwide, although they are becoming more frequent in developing countries.
In addition to Friday’s crash, CENIPA data shows that Brazil has had 108 plane accidents so far this year, killing 49 people. Over the past decade, Brazil has had 1,665 accidents, killing 746 people.
In January 2023, another ATR 72 aircraft operated by Yeti Airlines crashed in Nepal after stalling, killing all 72 people on board.
Nepalese authorities blamed the incident on pilot error.
[ad_2]
Source link
