EPAAuthorities have confirmed that all bodies have been recovered from the site of a plane crash in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state that killed all on board.
Crews worked to locate and identify the victims of a twin-engine turboprop operated by airline Vobas in Vinhedo.
The death toll was raised to 62 on Saturday.
Voepass said earlier that the ATR 72-500 was en route from Cascavel in the southern state of Paraná to Guarulhos Airport in the city of Sao Paulo with 57 passengers and four crew members on board. But it later confirmed that there was another unaccounted passenger on the flight.
In the footage circulating on social media, the plane appeared to be spiraling down as if in a vertical descent.
The plane crashed in a residential area, but no one on the ground was injured. Only one house in a local condominium complex was damaged, officials said.
The state of Sao Paulo said at 18:30 local time (22:30 BST) on Saturday that it had completed its operation to remove the victims’ bodies from the site.
It said the bodies – 34 men and 28 women – were being transferred to a police morgue in Sao Paulo city, where they would be identified and released to their families.
Two of the victims, the captain and first officer, have already been identified, the government confirmed.
Family members stay at a hotel in the city to help identify victims – so far 38 families have arrived.
Earlier, fire department spokeswoman Capt. Macon Christo said crews are relying on several factors to help identify the passengers.
This includes documents and the position of the bodies related to the seat, mobile phones recovered from some of the victims.
It was Brazil’s worst plane crash since 2007 A TAM Express plane crashes and catches fire at Sao Paulo’s Congonas Airport199 people were killed.
At this stage, the cause of the ATR 72-500 crash is unknown.
The flight recorders were recovered, officials said.
ATR, the Franco-Italian airline, said it was cooperating with the investigation.
According to the tracking website Flightradar24, Flight 2283 took off from Cascavel at 11:56 local time (14:56 GMT) on Friday and was due to arrive at 13:40.
The last signal received from the plane was 20 minutes before landing.
Brazil’s Civil Aviation Agency said the plane, built in 2010, was “in good operating condition, with correct registration and airworthiness certificates”.
All four crew members on board at the time of the accident were all duly licensed and properly qualified.
The Uopecan Cancer Hospital in Cascavel told BBC Brazil that two practicing doctors were among the dead passengers.
Local residents witnessed the moment the passenger plane crashed, while others described damage to their homes.
Luis Augusto de Oliveira told Reuters he, his wife and their maid were at home “when suddenly we saw the plane explode in the backyard of my house”.
He said: “During the collision, we thought the helicopter had malfunctioned because of the noise.
He said that no one in the house was hurt, and that while there was some damage, it was “as minimal as possible, material things. I have to thank God that the plane crashed.”
Another resident, Nathalie Cicari, told CNN Brazil that she was eating lunch when she heard “very close, very loud noises” that sounded like a drone but “much louder”.
“I went out on the balcony and saw the plane spinning. Within seconds I realized it was not the normal movement of an aircraft.”
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed his condolences to the families and friends of the victims as he spoke at the event.
“I have to be the bearer of very bad news and I want everyone to stand up for a minute of silence,” he told his audience.
He posted on social media that the news of the accident was “very sad”. “All my sympathies go out to the families and friends of the victims,” he said.
São Paulo’s state governor, Darcio Gómez de Freitas, has declared three days of mourning.
