Brazil plane crash: 62 people on board aircraft, airline says

A plane with 62 people aboard has crashed in a fiery wreck in a residential area of a city in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, an airline said, and the country’s president said that all passengers were presumed dead.

The airline VoePass confirmed that a plane heading to Sao Paulo’s international airport Guarulhos crashed with 58 passengers and four crew members aboard.

Brazilian television network GloboNews showed footage of a large area on fire and smoke coming out of what appeared to be a plane’s fuselage in an area full of houses.

Sao Paulo’s state fire brigade confirmed that a plane crashed in the city Vinhedo, about 50 miles northwest of Sao Paulo city, and said it had sent seven crews to the area.

Military police and the civil defence authority also sent emergency teams to the crash site.

The ATR-72 plane had taken off from Cascavel, in the state of Parana, news website G1 said, citing Voepass.

Video footage showed what appeared to be the plane plunging down in a nosedive and disappearing behind a cluster of trees, before a large plume of black smoke erupted into the air.

GloboNews showed footage of a large area on fire and smoke coming out of what appeared to be the wreckage of a plane’s fuselage.

Additional footage on GloboNews showed a plane drifting downward vertically, spiraling as it fell.

Voepass said the plane had 58 passengers and four crew members aboard.

It was not immediately clear how many people were killed or injured or what caused the accident.

At an event in southern Brazil, president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva asked the crowd to stand and observe a minute of silence.

The aircraft was listed by flight tracker FlightRadar24 as an ATR 72-500 turboprop. ATR is jointly owned by Airbus and Italian aerospace group Leonardo.

Breaking news: more follows