United States Environmental Protection AgencyAt least 21 bodies have been found at the scene of a plane crash in São Paulo state, Brazil that killed everyone on board.
Rescue teams worked through the night to search for victims of the disaster after a twin-engine propeller plane operated by Voepass airline crashed in the town of Vinhedo.
The death toll was updated on Saturday to 62.
Voepass had previously said the ATR 72-500 was carrying 57 passengers and four crew between Cascavel in the southern state of Paraná and Guarulhos airport in the city of São Paulo. But it later confirmed another passenger was missing on the flight.
Footage circulating on social media shows a plane diving vertically, in a spiral pattern as it crashes.
The plane crashed into a residential area, but no one on the ground was injured. Officials said only one home in a local apartment complex was damaged.
So far, two people have been identified from evidence collected at the scene, said Captain Maycon Cristo, a spokesman for the fire department assisting in the rescue effort.
He said teams are relying on a number of factors to help identify passengers.
These documents include documents and locations of bodies related to seating, as well as cell phones recovered from some of the victims.
Captain Cristo said the casualties were being transferred to the police morgue in São Paulo.
Lieutenant Ramatuel Silvino of the São Paulo civil defense agency said the family members will stay at a hotel in the city.
The plane crash was the worst in Brazil since 2007, when A TAM Express plane crashed and caught fire at São Paulo’s Congonhas airport.killed 199 people.
At this stage, it is still unknown what caused the ATR 72-500 aircraft to crash.
Authorities said the flight’s black box has been recovered.
ATR, the Franco-Italian aircraft manufacturer, said it would cooperate with the investigation.
Flight 2283 took off from Cascavel at 11:56 local time (14:56 GMT) on Friday and was scheduled to arrive at 13:40, according to tracking website Flightradar24.
The last signal received from the plane was about 20 minutes before the scheduled landing time.
Brazil’s civil aviation authority said the plane, built in 2010, was “in good working condition, with valid registration and airworthiness certificates”.
The statement added that the four crew members on board at the time of the accident were all validly licensed and qualified.
The Uopeccan Cancer Hospital in Cascavel told BBC Brasil that two of its interns were among the dead passengers.
The moment the passenger plane crashed was witnessed by locals, while others described damage to their homes.
Luiz Augusto de Oliveira told Reuters that he, his wife and their maid were at home when “suddenly we saw the plane explode in my backyard”.
“At the time of the crash, we thought it was a broken down helicopter because of the noise,” he said.
He added that everyone in the house was safe and that although there was some damage, “it was as little as possible, it was material property. I can only thank God for the way the plane crashed”.
Another resident, Nathalie Cicari, told CNN Brasil that she was having lunch when she heard “a very loud noise very close by,” describing it as sounding like a drone but “much louder.”
“I went out to the balcony and saw the plane spinning. Within seconds, I realized that was not the normal movement of a plane.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed solidarity with the families and friends of the victims at an event where he delivered a speech.
“I have to be the one to break the very bad news and I would like everyone to stand so we can have a moment of silence,” he told the audience.
He posted on social media that the news of the accident was “very sad”. “My deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims,” he said.
The governor of São Paulo state, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, has declared three days of mourning.
