Brazilian Flight Crashes Into Neighborhood, Killing 61

Witnesses on the ground say no one in the residential area was hurt
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 9, 2024 1:14 PM CDT
Updated Aug 9, 2024 4:17 PM CDT
Jet in Brazil Carrying 62 Crashes in Residential Area
Police patrol the street leading to the gated community where a plane crashed in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, on Friday.   (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

All 61 people aboard a Brazilian passenger plane that went down in a residential area of Sao Paulo on Friday were killed, the airline said. There was no official word on whether anyone on the ground was hurt, though witnesses in the area reported no casualties among residents, per the AP.

  • Voepass airline said the ATR 72-500 twin-engine turboprop carrying 57 passengers and four crew members took off from Cascavel and was bound for Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport when it crashed into a residential area in the city of Vinhedo, not far from its intended destination. Initial reports had said there were 58 passengers.
  • Brazilian TV showed footage of the plane, Flight 2283, spiraling down vertically, as well as the fiery aftermath of the crash. Several homes were reportedly hit, per CNN.
  • "I thought it was going to fall in our yard," a resident and witness told reporters near the crash site.
  • There was no immediate word on what might have caused the crash. A Brazilian safety agency said the pilots did not report any problems. Flightradar24 said the plane sent data indicating it was diving at 8,000 to 24,000 feet per minute in the last 60 seconds of flight.
  • The ATR 72, generally used on short flights, is built by a joint venture of Airbus in France and Italy's Leonardo S.p.A. Crashes involving various ATR 72 models have resulted in 470 deaths going back to the 1990s, according to a database of the Aviation Safety Network.
  • At an event in southern Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asked the crowd to stand and observe a minute of silence as he shared the news.
(More plane crash stories.)

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