Brazilian authorities worked on Saturday to piece together what exactly caused a plane crash in Sao Paulo state the previous day that killed all 62 people on board.
Rescue teams took dozens of bodies from the wreckage and families started gathering to identify their remains.
Local airline Voepass’ plane, an ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop was headed for Sao Paulo’s international airport in Guarulhos with 58 passengers and four crew members, when it went down in the city of Vinhedo.
Initially, the company said its plane had 62 passengers, then it revised the number to 61 and early on Saturday it raised the figure once again after it found a passenger named Constantino Thé Maia was not on its original list.
Voepass also said three passengers who held Brazilian identification also carried Venezuelan documents and one had Portuguese.
Sao Paulo state government noted in a statement that as of Saturday afternoon 50 bodies had been removed from the wreckage, and two had been identified by forensics experts.
Earlier, Maycon Cristo a spokesman for the local fire department, told journalists in Vinhedo that a winch is being used to remove parts of the plane’s carcass from the ground.
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“As we see a possible body in the middle of the destruction of the plane, rescue teams come in. Then they take pictures, gather as much evidence from the victim as they can so the identification can be the most accurate,” Cristo said.
Brazilian authorities began transferring the corpses to the morgue on Friday and called on victims’ family members to bring any medical, X-ray and dental exams to help identify the bodies. Blood tests were also done to help identification efforts.
Images recorded by witnesses showed the aircraft in a flat spin and plunging vertically before smashing to the ground inside a gated community, and leaving an obliterated fuselage consumed by fire. Residents said there were no injuries on the ground.
It was the world’s deadliest airline crash since January 2023, when 72 people died on board a Yeti Airlines plane in Nepal that stalled and crashed while making its landing approach. That plane also was an ATR 72, and the final report blamed pilot error.
Metsul, one of Brazil’s most renowned meteorological companies, said Friday there were reports of severe icing in Sao Paulo state around the time of the crash. Local media cited experts pointing to icing as a potential cause for the accident.
A video shared on social media channels on Saturday showed a Voepass pilot telling passengers of a flight from Guarulhos to the city of Cascavel, the same origin of the crashed plane that the ATR 72 has flown safely around the world for decades. He also asked passengers to be respectful to the memory of his colleagues and the company and asked for prayers.
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