A passenger plane carrying 61 people crashed on the outskirts of São Paulo on Friday, according to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Lula said it “appears” that everyone on board the flight may have died.
“There is still no confirmation of how the accident occurred or the current situation of the people on board,” airline Voepass said in a statement Friday.
The plane was traveling from Cascavel, in the Brazilian state of Parana, to São Paulo.
CNN has confirmed through geolocation that the plane crashed in a residential area in Vinhedo, Brazil.
Brazil’s Civil Defence said the aircraft crashed into multiple houses.
Dramatic social media videos showed the plane crashing in the residential area and then a plume of gray smoke going up in the sky.
Authorities recover flight recorder from fatal Brazil plane crash
Authorities have found the black box flight recorder at the crash site in Brazil, according to the Security Secretary from São Paulo Guilherme Derrite.
A medical team is on site and working to identify the victims, he said at a news conference, but many of the victims’ remains are too badly burned for visual identification.
Officials are in the process of contacting family members of the passengers, according to Derrite.
Authorities will release the names of the passengers soon, he said.
Valinhos City Communications Director Ana Cândida Briski told CNN earlier that the 61 people who were on board the plane were dead.
Multiple passengers did not make the Brazil flight after going to the wrong gate
A man who missed the flight told Brazilian news outlet Globo that at least 10 people were waiting at the wrong gate and missed the flight before it took off.
“They said to me, ‘Mister, you’re not getting on this plane because we’re already past the boarding limit.’ I even pressured them a little. ‘Mister, put me on this plane, I have to go,’ then he said, ‘There’s no way, what I can do is rebook your ticket,’” the man told Globo.
When they realized they were at the wrong gate, the passengers begged the airport employees to board the plane but were told they could not.
“My legs are shaking; only God knows how I’m feeling,” the man said after finding out the plane had crashed. “Thank God, we didn’t get on that plane.”
Witnesses describe hearing the plane just before it crashed into Brazilian neighborhood
One woman in Vinhedo, Brazil, said she heard the plane before she saw it.
“I heard a very loud noise, very close to me. I thought it was a drone. I looked up to the sky and saw the plane spinning,” Nathalie Cicari told CNN Brasil.
In those next few seconds, Cicari said she realized she had no time to run — the plane was too close to where she was standing. She said she ducked just before she heard a loud crashing sound.
Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the plane dropped roughly 17,000 feet in just one minute.
“When I realized it had passed, I went to the balcony and I saw a gigantic black smoke rising,” Cicari said.
Another witness, Felipe Magalhaes, told Reuters he also heard the plane as it was falling.
Speaking in Portuguese, he told the news outlet he looked out of his window the moment it crashed.
“The way it fell — I ran out of the house and went to see where it had fallen and saw it had fallen into the house of a couple of elderly people. We also knew them from church. And so, terrified and not knowing what to do, I jumped over the wall,” Magalhaes said.
He said his intention was not to see the wreckage but to try to help people in the neighborhood, according to Reuters.
“My intention was not to see the plane, it was nothing — it was to get the elderly people out of the house. But they didn’t want to leave because of their animals,” Magalhaes said, adding that the plane fell on the roof.
Here’s where the crash happened
A passenger plane carrying 62 people crashed on the outskirts of São Paulo on Friday afternoon, killing everyone on board, according to Brazilian officials.
The flight left Cascavel, in the Brazilian state of Paraná, and was en route to Guarulhos, in São Paulo state, according to Flightradar24 data.
The plane crashed in Vinhedo — a residential area in the western part of the city.
Crashed plane was manufactured in 2010 and purchased by airline in 2022, records show
The Voepass Linhas Aéreas flight that crashed near Vinhedo, Brazil, was manufactured in 2010 and purchased by the airline in September 2022, according to registration data from the Brazilian Aeronautical Registry.
The plane can carry 68 passengers, has 73 seats and requires a minimum of two crew members to operate, the registration shows.
The registration also indicates that the aircraft was “denied operation for air taxi.” But it’s unclear why or when that determination was made at this time.
ATR, the plane’s manufacturer, says it was aware of an accident and is working to support investigators.
“What we can say at this point in time is that ATR has been informed that an accident occurred in Vinhedo, Brazil involving an ATR 72-500. Our first thoughts are with all the individuals affected by this event. The ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer,” according to the statement.
CNN has reached out to Brazil’s aviation authority for more details.
Black box flight recorder will be critical in determining why the plane crashed, former investigator says
The black box flight recorder onboard the plane that crashed in Brazil will be an important part of the investigation into what happened, a former investigator told CNN.
Alan Diehl, who worked for the US National Transportation Air Safety Board, said these devices will “tell the story once they recover them.”
Speaking to CNN’s Isa Soares, Diehl said black boxes are “highly survivable,” even in a crash like this where there is a lot of fire.
The plane went down in a residential area in Vinhedo, Brazil. Video and photos of the crash site show emergency responders putting out fire at the wreckage.
São Paulo governor establishes crisis cabinet to respond to Brazil plane crash
The governor of São Paulo, Brazil, has created a crisis cabinet to respond to the deadly plane crash in Vinhedo, which is located in the interior of the state.
“This crisis cabinet will be made up of the federal government, the state government and the Brazilian Air Force,” Gov. Tarcísio de Freitas said, CNN Brasil reports.
Multiple agencies are at the scene of the crash helping with rescue efforts, the São Paulo Government said earlier in a statement.
No one in the residential area where plane crashed was killed, city spokesperson says
No one was killed in the residential area where the plane crashed, Valinhos City Communications Director Ana Cândida Briski told CNN.
The death toll remains at 61, which were the people who were on board the plane, she said.
Plane began losing altitude a minute and a half before crashing, flight tracking data shows
The flight that crashed near Vinhedo, Brazil, began losing altitude a minute and a half before crashing, flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows.
The plane, which belonged to Voepass Linhas Aéreas, had been cruising at 17,000 feet until 1:21 p.m. local time (12:21 p.m. ET), when it dropped approximately 250 feet in 10 seconds.
It then climbed approximately 400 feet in about eight seconds.
Eight seconds later, it lost just under 2,000 feet. Then, in approximately one minute, it began rapidly descending — roughly 17,000 feet in just one minute.
The last data transmission from the plane was at 1:22 p.m. local time (12:22 p.m. ET).
Emergency responders on scene of Brazil plane crash
From CNN’s Duarte Mendonca and AnneClaire Stapleton
Police stand along the street leading to the gated community where a plane crashed in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday.
Police stand along the street leading to the gated community where a plane crashed in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday.
Multiple agencies are at the scene of a fatal plane crash in Brazil helping with rescue efforts, the São Paulo Government said in a statement.
Civil Defence and the Public Security Secretariat are mobilized in the Capela neighborhood in Vinhedo, Brazil, the statement said.
The fire department sent seven teams to the scene of the crash.
The Technical-Scientific Police Superintendency (SPTC) and the Civil and Military Police were also mobilized to rescue the victims. Teams from the Legal Medical Institute (IML) and those responsible for collecting bodies were additionally sent to the scene, according to the government statement.
Local hospitals are on alert to receive any patients, the statement said.
São Paulo Gov. Tarcísio de Freitas is returning to the state of São Paulo and is going to the municipality of Vinhedo to monitor the rescue operation, the statement continued.
Airline company says it has not confirmed cause of crash or condition of people on board
Fire is seen coming from a plane that crashed by a home in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday.
Fire is seen coming from a plane that crashed by a home in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday.
The airline company, Voepass, said it has not yet confirmed what caused one of its planes to crash in Brazil on Friday.
“VOEPASS used all means to support those involved. There is still no confirmation of how the accident occurred or the current situation of the people on board,” airline Voepass said in a statement Friday.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said it “appears” that all 62 people on board the flight may have died.
Plane crashed in residential area of Vinhedo, Brazil
The plane that was headed to Guarulhos, Brazil, crashed in Vinhedo — a residential area in the western part of the city.
CNN has confirmed through geolocation that the passenger plane crashed next to a home in Vinhedo.
Flight 2283 departed from Cascavel.
The aircraft, registration PS-VPB, is an ATR 72-500 and has a total capacity of 74 people, according to Flightradar24.
Investigators will have to determine how the plane got to “out of control” state before crash, analyst says
Social media videos of the crash showed the plane spiraling out of the sky before hitting the ground.
Social media videos of the crash showed the plane spiraling out of the sky before hitting the ground.
The official investigation into a fatal plane crash in Brazil will be the key to figuring out what caused the aircraft to drop out of the sky and into a residential area on Friday.
Video posted on social media shows the plane falling nearly straight down. Brazil’s Civil Defense said it crashed into multiple houses, as reported by CNN Brasil.
“We don’t know if there was any kind of mid-air collision, whether there was an engine failure. We just don’t have enough facts,” CNN aviation analyst Peter Goetz told CNN’s Isa Soares.
But what the clip does show is that the plane was “out of control” and the pilots did not have enough altitude to recover, he said.
“It was in a very perilous state, but how it got there will be the job of the investigators to figure out,” Goetz said.
Woman in São Paulo describes moment plane crashes into her neighbor’s house
One woman captured video of the aftermath of a plane crashing into her neighbor’s house outside of São Paulo.
The aircraft crashed into multiple houses, according to Brazil’s Civil Defense, reported by CNN Brasil. At least 62 people on the plane were killed, according to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones said she spoke to that woman on the phone. The video shows smoke and fire coming up from below her building.
She told CNN she was eating lunch in her kitchen when she saw the plane going down. She said she was terrified and ducked down and started praying.
That woman told Jones it was a “moment of panic in the city.”
Jones reported that the woman is safe now, but she is not able to get back to her apartment. The private roads that lead up to the properties are closed off to everyone, including residents. She said the woman told her first responders are in the area.
61 people dead after plane crash in Brazil, president says
Dramatic social media videos on Friday afternoon show a small plane crashing in a residential area outside of São Paulo.
Dramatic social media videos on Friday afternoon show a small plane crashing in a residential area outside of São Paulo.
Sixty-two people are dead after a plane crash in Brazil, the country’s president said.
“First I have to be the bearer of very bad news and I would like everyone to stand up so that we can observe a minute of silence because a plane has just crashed in the city of Vinhedo, in São Paulo, with 58 passengers and 4 crew members and it appears they all died. I want to ask for a minute of silence for the victims,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on X.
Dramatic social media videos on Friday afternoon show a small plane crashing in a residential area outside of São Paulo. The aircraft crashed into multiple houses, according to Brazil’s Civil Defense, reported by CNN Brasil.
The flight was carrying 58 passengers and four crew members at the time of the crash, according to a statement by airline Voepass.
According to data on Flightradar24, the Voepass plane left Cascavel and was en route to São Paulo when it lost signal shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time. [CNN]
