CNN
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A passenger plane with 62 passengers on board crashed outside São Paulo on Friday afternoon, killing all passengers, according to Brazilian authorities. Dramatic images from the scene of the accident showed the crash of the Voepass Linhas Aéreas plane and the destroyed fuselage, which was in flames on the ground.
“There are no survivors,” Ana Cândida Briski, communications director for the nearby town of Valinhos, told CNN, adding that there were no casualties on the ground.
Flight tracking data shows that the ATR 72-500, a twin-engine turboprop aircraft, plunged 17,000 feet in just one minute, but the reason is still unclear. “There is no confirmation yet on how the accident occurred or the current condition of the people on board,” the airline Voepass said in a statement.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva interrupted his speech at an afternoon naval event discussing the accident and called for a minute’s silence to commemorate the presumed deaths of the flight’s passengers and crew.
“I want everyone to stand up so we can observe a minute of silence because a plane with 58 passengers and four crew members just crashed in the city of Vinhedo, in São Paulo, and it seems that everyone has died,” he said in a video of his statement shared on X.
Social media videos of the crash showed the plane spiraling out of the sky before hitting the ground as people in the neighborhood screamed in fear. Another video showed the wreckage of the plane on the ground in flames.
The flight left Cascavel in the Brazilian state of Paraná and was en route to Guarulhos in the state of São Paulo when it lost signal shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. ET), according to data from Flightradar24.
A minute and a half before the crash, it began to lose altitude. By 1:21 p.m. local time, the plane was flying at an altitude of 17,000 feet and then descended about 250 feet in 10 seconds. It then climbed about 400 feet in about eight seconds.
Eight seconds later, it lost nearly 2,000 feet and after about a minute began to descend rapidly – about 17,000 feet in just one minute.
The last data transmission from the aircraft took place at 1:22 p.m. local time.
The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, has announced the creation of an emergency cabinet to deal with the plane crash in Vinhedo in the interior of the country. Several organizations are on site and supporting the rescue efforts, the government of São Paulo said in a statement.
A local resident filmed the aftermath of a plane crash into her neighbor’s home outside São Paulo and told CNN’s Julia Vargas Jones she was eating lunch in her kitchen when she saw the plane crash.
She crouched down in fear and began to pray, she said, calling it a “moment of panic” for the entire town. Private roads leading to the properties are now closed to everyone, including residents, she said, and first responders are on the scene.
According to registration data from the Brazilian Aviation Registry, the flight Voepass Linhas Aéreas was manufactured in 2010 and purchased by the airline in September 2022.
According to the registration, the aircraft was denied “operation as an air taxi,” but it is unclear why or when this decision was made at this time.
ATR, the aircraft’s manufacturer, said it was aware of the accident and was assisting investigators.
“What we can say at this stage is that ATR has been informed that an accident involving an ATR 72-500 has occurred in Vinhedo, Brazil. Our first thoughts are with all those affected by this incident. ATR specialists are fully engaged in supporting both the investigation and the customer,” the statement said.
CNN has reached out to the Brazilian aviation authority for further details on this decision.
Aviation experts told CNN that the ATR 72s, built by a European consortium, have a troubled history. The ATR 72, as well as the company’s similar but smaller ATR 42, have been involved in a number of accidents: at least 15 fatal incidents involving ATR turboprops have been recorded worldwide.
CNN’s Pam Boykoff contributed to this report.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
