By A plane carrying at least 62 people crashed Friday in Brazil, officials in the South American country announced.
In a briefing Friday afternoon, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for a minute of silence for the 58 passengers and four passengers in the plane crash in Vinhedo, a city in Sao Paulo state. The cause of the crash was unknown, he said.
“It appears all have died,” Lula said.
In a social media post, Voepass, a regional airline based in Sao Paulo state, confirmed its plane had crashed. The plane departed from Cascavel, a Brazilian city near the country’s southern border with Paraguay and Argentina, as it was headed to Guarulhos, just outside the city of Sao Paulo, Voepass said in its post.
The airline said it hadn’t confirmed how the crash occurred or the status of the people on board.
Video shared by the site BNO news showed a plane, identified as Voepass Flight 2283, plummeting to the ground in Vinhedo, about 50 miles northwest of Sao Paulo.
Sao Paulo’s state fire brigade confirmed on social media that a plane crashed in Vinhedo, and that it sent seven crews to the region of the accident.
Voepass Flight 2283 was heading to Sao Paulo, Brazil from Cascavel, Brazil, according to FlightAware. The flight departed Cascavel at 11:50 a.m. and was scheduled to land in Sao Paulo at 1:40 p.m.
The aircraft was ATR ATR-72 (twin-turboprop), FlightAware said.
Contributing: Reuters
