Brazil: Plane Crash in São Paulo Kills All 61 Onboard, Investigation Underway

In a devastating plane crash in São Paulo on Friday afternoon, all 61 individuals on board tragically lost their lives, as reported by CNN, citing a statement from the airline Voepass. The airline initially reported 62 casualties but later revised the death toll to 61, confirming that the flight carried 57 passengers and four crew members.

Voepass expressed deep sorrow in their statement, saying, “The company regrets to inform that all 61 people on board flight 2283 died at the scene.” The crash’s aftermath has been captured in a dramatic video circulating online, showing the aircraft’s wrecked fuselage engulfed in flames.

Although it’s still uncertain whether any passengers held dual citizenship, Voepass indicated that all had Brazilian documentation. The aircraft involved was an ATR 72-500, a twin-engine turboprop, which descended rapidly from 17,000 feet within less than a minute, according to flight monitoring data. The cause of this sudden descent remains unknown.

The ill-fated flight was en route to Guarulhos in São Paulo state from Cascavel in Paraná state. According to Flightradar24 data, the aircraft lost signal shortly after departing from Cascavel at approximately 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. ET). The descent began a minute before the crash, with the plane initially dropping 250 feet in 10 seconds at 17,000 feet altitude. It then climbed about 400 feet in eight seconds before a sharp descent, losing nearly 2,000 feet. In just one minute, the plane plunged approximately 17,000 feet, with its last transmission occurring at 1:22 p.m. local time.

In response to this tragedy, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning. As of now, the cause of the crash remains under investigation.