A passenger plane carrying 62 people crashed on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil, on Friday afternoon, killing everyone on board, according to Brazilian officials.
Dramatic footage from the scene showed the Voepass Linhas Aéreas plane’s fall and its destroyed fuselage in flames on the ground.
“There are no survivors,” Ana Cândida Briski, communications director of the nearby city of Valinhos, told CNN, adding that there were no ground victims.
Flight tracking data shows that the ATR 72-500, a twin-engine turboprop plane, dropped 17,000 feet in just one minute, but it is not yet clear why. “There is still no confirmation of how the accident occurred or the current situation of the people on board,” according to a statement by airline Voepass.
Interrupting a speech at an afternoon naval event to address the crash, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for a minute of silence to mark the apparent deaths of the flight’s passengers and crew.
“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,” he said, in a video of his statement shared on X.
Social media videos of the crash showed the plane spiralling out of the sky before hitting the ground as people in the neighbourhood shouted in fear. Another video showed the wreckage of the plane in flames on the ground.
The flight left Cascavel, in the Brazilian state of Parana, and was en route to Guarulhos, in São Paulo state, when it lost signal shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. ET), according to Flightradar24 data.
It began losing altitude a minute and a half before crashing. The plane had been cruising at 17,000 feet until 1:21 p.m. local time 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—rroughly 17,000 feet in just one minute.
The last data transmission from the plane was at 1:22 p.m. local time.
The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, has announced the creation of a crisis cabinet to deal with the plane crash in Vinhedo, in the interior of the state. Multiple agencies are at the scene of the crash, helping with rescue efforts, the São Paulo government said in a statement.
One resident recorded video of the aftermath of a plane crashing into her neighbour’s house outside of São Paulo, telling CNN’s Julia Vargas Jones she was eating lunch in her kitchen when she saw the plane going down.
She dove down in terror and started praying, she said, calling it a “moment of panic” for the whole city. Private roads leading up to the properties are now closed off to everyone, including residents, she said, and first responders are in the area.
São Paulo Plane Crash: An investigation begins
The airline purchased the Voepass Linhas Aéreas flight in September 2022, according to registration data from the Brazilian Aeronautical Registry.
According to the registration, 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 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,” the statement said.
CNN has reached out to Brazil’s aviation authority for more details about that determination.
According to flight experts who spoke with CNN, the European consortium that builds ATR 72s has a troubled history. ATR 72’s, as well as the company’s similar, but smaller ATR 42 designation, have previously been involved in some accidents: There have been at least 15 incidents resulting in passenger deaths involving ATR turboprops recorded worldwide.
