A passenger plane with 62 people on board crashed on the outskirts of Sao Paulo on Friday afternoon, killing all on board, CNN reported.
Dramatic footage shows the plane falling and the ensuing flames on the ground.
" "There are no survivors," said Ana Candida Brischi, director of communications for the nearby town of Valinhos, adding that there were no casualties on the ground.
The data flight tracking shows Voepass Linhas Aéreas fell from 17,000 feet in just one minute, but it is unclear what caused the twin-engine turboprop plane to fall. “There is still no confirmation of how the incident happened or the current condition of the people on board,” according to a statement by Voepass airline.
The Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva interrupted his speech this afternoon and called for a minute's silence to mark the apparent deaths of the passengers and crew on the flight.
" "I would like everyone to stand up so we can observe a moment of silence because a plane just crashed in the town of Vinedo, in Satildeo Paulo, with 58 passengers and 4 crew members and it looks like they are all dead," he said. in a video of his statement shared on X.
Videos of the crash show the plane spiraling before hitting the ground as people in the neighborhood scream in fear. Another video shows the wreckage of the plane in flames on the ground.
The plane had left Cascavel, in the Brazilian state of Paraná, en route to Guarulhos, in the state of São Paulo, when its signal was lost shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. ET), according to data from Flightradar24.
One A resident recorded video of the aftermath of a plane that crashed into her neighbor's house outside Satilde Paulo, telling CNN's Julia Vargas Jones that she was eating lunch in her kitchen when she saw the plane go down.
Experts remind that the ATR 72s, which are built by a European consortium, have a controversial past. They and similar ATR 42s have been involved in a number of accidents: There have been at least 15 recorded incidents worldwide involving ATR turboprops that resulted in the deaths of passengers.
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