Plane crashes in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, all 62 on board killed

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva decries ‘sad news’ and offers condolences to families of victims.

A plane carrying 62 people has crashed outside the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, killing all onboard, local officials have said. 

The Brazilian airline Voepass had confirmed on Friday that the plane crashed northeast of the city of Sao Paulo.

Officials in the town Valinhos said on Friday there were no survivors, and only one home in a local residential complex had been damaged in the area where the plane fell but none of the residents were hurt.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had also said earlier that it appears that all passengers are presumed dead.

“Very sad news,” he said in a social media post. “All my solidarity to the families and friends of the victims.”

The Brazilian airport authority has yet to confirm details of the incident, but the news outlet Globo shared images of the flaming wreckage of the plane in the state of Sao Paulo. The airline said the flight had 58 passengers and four crew on board.

Firefighters, military police, and the country’s civil defence authority have despatched workers to the site of the crash.

“The general director of the Federal Police, Andrei Passos, reported that an investigation and forensics team, with experts in identifying disaster victims,” Globo reported. The outlet also said Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas is traveling to the site of the crash.

The air traffic tracker Flightradar24 said in a social media post that the aircraft was a ATR72-500 built in 2010 and was en route to Sao Paulo from the Cascavel airport in the southern state of Parana.

More to come…

Source

:

Al Jazeera and news agencies