61 dead in fiery plane crash in Brazil's Sao Paulo state

SAO PAULO (TND) — Sixty-one people are dead after a fiery plane crash in a residential area of a city in Brazil's Sao Paulo, according to the airline that operated the flight.

PresidentLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva posted a video on X and asked for a minute of silence for the victims while confirming they all appeared to have died. The airline, VOEPASS, initially said the death total was 62 but later clarified the figure.

"First I have to be the bearer of very bad news and 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 4 crew members and it appears they all died. I want to ask for a minute of silence for the victims," according to a translation by CNN.

The airline Voepass confirmed in a statement that the plane was headed for Sao Paulo’s international airport Guarulho.

No information has been provided about what caused the incident.

Firefighters, military police and the civil defense authority dispatched teams to the crash site in Vinhedo. Authorities sealed off the entrance to the residential area where the plane went down, as journalists waited outside for updates.

Brazilian television network GloboNews showed aerial footage of an area on fire with smoke coming out of an obliterated plane fuselage. Additional footage on GloboNews earlier showed the plane drifting downward vertically, spiraling as it fell.

The plane is an ATR 72-500, manufactured by French-Italian ATR. The company told The Associated Press in a statement that it had been informed of the accident involved that model of plane and company specialists are “fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer.”

The plane departed from Cascavel, in the state of Parana.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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