A tragic plane crash in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state claimed the lives of 62 people on Friday afternoon. The aircraft, carrying 58 passengers and four crew members, crashed while en route to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport.
The plane went down in the residential area of Vinhedo. Dramatic footage broadcast by GloboNews showed the aircraft spiralling out of control moments before the crash. The video captured the plane listing and drifting downward before it spiralled and crashed behind a group of trees, out of sight from the camera. Subsequent images revealed a fire and smoke billowing from the wreckage, partially obscured by nearby residential homes.
As of now, the exact number of injuries or fatalities has not been officially confirmed. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva requested a moment of silence during a public event in southern Brazil in response to the disaster.
Uma notícia muito triste. Toda minha solidariedade aos familiares e amigos das vítimas. pic.twitter.com/eb47itDbe8
— Lula (@LulaOficial) August 9, 2024
“I would like everyone to stand up so that we can observe a minute of silence because a plane has just crashed in the city of Vinhedo, in São Paulo, with 58 passengers and four crew members, and it appears they all died,” Lula said in a video shared on X. It remains unclear how the president obtained information about the casualties.
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined. CNN aviation analyst Peter Goetz stated, “We don’t know if there was any mid-air collision or an engine failure. We don’t have enough facts.”
According to flight tracking data from Flightradar24, the plane had taken off from Cascavel and was on its way to São Paulo when it lost signal shortly before 1:30 p.m.
