Brazil News: A passenger plane has crashed in the city of Vinhedo in the Sao Paulo state of Brazil. According to Brazilian airline Voipas, a total of 62 people were on board the crashed plane. However, till the time of writing the news, there has been no official statement on the identification of the bodies or the death toll. Local firefighters said that the plane crashed in the city of Vinhedo. Before the accident, smoke was seen coming out from the front of the plane. At present, the causes of the accident are being investigated. Efforts are on to recover the black box of the plane.
The Civil Protection Department said the plane crashed into a residential area, hitting several houses, according to Brazilian television network GloboNews. The VOIPAS flight had departed from Cascavel and was headed to Sao Paulo.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for a minute's silence at an event in southern Brazil upon learning of the accident. According to a CNN report, analysis of data from Flightradar24, a website that monitors aircraft performance, showed that the Voipas plane had taken off from Cascavel and was on its way to Sao Paulo before the accident. Video footage that surfaced on social media after the accident showed the severity of the accident from the fire in the plane's wreckage.
Shortly after takeoff, its signal was lost at around 1:30 pm local time. According to the report, the airline company operating the plane said that there were a total of 62 people on board flight number 2283, including 58 passengers and four crew members.
According to Al Jazeera's report, President Lula da Silva said that it is feared that all the passengers have died. He said in a social media post, 'Very sad news.' In the video of the accident going viral on social media, the plane can be seen falling rapidly to the ground. A cloud of smoke was also seen after the plane crashed.