All 61 persons including 57 passengers and 4 crew members onboard Voepass airline plane that crashed into residential area in Brazil on Friday have been confirmed dead.
Video recordings posted online by eyewitnesses saw the plane lost the ability to continue to fly and fell directly to the ground with thick smoke billowing immediately.
Voepass airline in a new statement few minutes ago said that 61 people have died.
The death toll was amended to 57 passengers and four crew members.
Voepass had initially in a statement said the flight was carrying 58 passengers and four crew members at the time of the crash.
“The company regrets to inform that all 61 people on board flight 2283 died at the site.
“At this time, Voepass is prioritizing provision of unrestricted assistance to the victims’ families and effectively collaborating with authorities to determine the causes of the accident”, the airline, Voepass said.
The Brazilian Air Force team will investigate the cause of Friday’s deadly plane crash, the Vinhedo City Hall said in a statement.
Vinhedo City Hall said it has been on the site of the crash offering support to other emergency responders. It said in the statement that it is waiting for the Air Force team to arrive, which will be responsible for the investigation, according to CNN.
“The fire outbreaks and major risks have already been controlled; the main objective, from the beginning, was to guarantee the safety of everyone on site and care for possible victims, with Santa Casa de Vinhedo, Santa Casa de Valinhos and Hospital Galileo prepared to offer full support,” the statement added.
Vinhedo City Hall said the bodies of the plane crash victims will be taken to the Legal Medical Institute in Campinas.
Vinhedo City Hall also declared a three-day mourning period in memory of the victims of the crash.
It was gathered that the Brazilian authorities have found the black box at the crash site in Brazil, according to the Security Secretary from São Paulo, Guilherme Derrite.
The Security Secretary said a medical team is onsite and working to identify the victims. Adding that many of the victims’ remains are too badly burned for visual identification.
Officials are in the process of contacting family members of the passengers, according to Derrite. Authorities will release the names of the passengers soon, he said.
We learnt that the Voepass Airlines flight, en route from #Cascavel to São Paulo, went down shortly before reaching its destination.
Firefighters, military police and the civil defense authority have dispatched teams to the crash site in Vinhedo. Authorities have sealed off the entrance to the residential area where the plane went down, as journalists outside watched as official vehicles including ambulances drove in and waited for updates.
“I thought it was going to fall in our yard. It was scary, but thank God there were no victims among the locals. It seems that the 62 people inside the plane were the real victims, though”, a resident told reporters at the crash site.
Video obtained by The Associated Press from a bystander and verified shows at least two bodies strewn about flaming pieces of wreckage.
Brazilian television network GloboNews showed aerial footage of an area with smoke coming out of an obliterated plane fuselage. Additional footage on GloboNews earlier showed the plane drifting downward vertically, spiraling as it fell.
