CNN
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A A passenger plane carrying 62 people crashed on the outskirts of Sao Paulo on Friday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said, with dramatic footage from the scene showing the wrecked fuselage on fire on the ground.
Interrupting a speech at a naval event, Lula said it “appeared” that everyone on board the plane may have died. It was not immediately clear what caused the twin-turboprop plane to crash.
“I would like everyone to stand up so we can have a minute of silence because a plane has just crashed in the city of Vinhedo in Sao Paulo with 58 passengers and 4 crew members on board and it seems that they are all dead,” he said in a video of his statement shared on X.
Flight 2283 had departed Cascavel, in the Brazilian state of Paraná, and was en route to Sao Paulo when it lost signal shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. EST), according to data on Flightradar24.
Videos on social media showed the moment the plane crashed as it flew in the sky before hitting the ground, with people screaming in fear in the neighborhood. Another video showed the wreckage of the plane burning on the ground.
Brazil’s civil defense agency said the plane hit several houses as it crashed into a residential area, CNN Brazil reported.
“There is no confirmation yet on how the accident occurred or the current status of the people on board,” according to a statement from airline Voipas.
One resident recorded video of the aftermath of a plane crashing into her neighbor’s house outside Sao Paulo, telling CNN’s Julia Vargas Jones she was eating lunch in her kitchen when she saw the plane go down.
She said she knelt on the ground in terror and began to pray, describing the moment as a “moment of panic” for the entire city. She added that private roads leading to the accident site are now closed, and rescue workers are in the area.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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