A VoePass aircraft with 58 passengers and four crew members on board crashed in Brazil. There were no survivors, Sao Paulo state Governor Tarcisio de Freitas said in a news conference.
The airline, which operates a small fleet of planes made by the French company ATR, said the flight was traveling from the state of Parana to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport. It crashed in Vinhedo, a city in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo.
Videos posted to social media Friday afternoon showed the plane suddenly plummeting from the sky. But it remains unclear how the accident occurred, VoePass said in its statement.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva asked for a moment of silence for the passengers during his own event Friday, saying that “it seems that everyone has died.”
“I have to be the spokesperson for some very bad news,” he said. “My deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the victims.”
Sao Paulo state firefighters said seven teams were working at the crash site. Freitas said he and Carlos Roberto Massa Junior, the governor of Parana state, planned to fly to Vinhedo immediately.
According to PlaneSpotters, VoePass has 12 ATR 72 models and two ATR 42s.
(c) Washington Post