Brazil authorities recover bodies of all 62 plane crash victims

Brazil authorities recover bodies of all 62 plane crash victims

By Sebastian Rocandio

Brazilian emergency crews on Saturday recovered the remains of the 62 victims aboard an airliner that plunged to the ground in the town of Vinhedo, near Sao Paulo the day before, killing all on board.

The bodies of most of the victims - 34 males and 28 females - had already been moved to Sao Paulo's police morgue for identification. The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot were identified earlier in the day, said Dario Pacheco, mayor of Vinhedo.

Four people with dual citizenship were among the victims, three Venezuelans and one Portuguese woman, said regional carrier Voepass, which operated the aircraft.

The Venezuelans were a 4-year-old boy, his mother and grandmother, local outlet Globo News reported. The boy's dog was also on the flight, which the family was taking to later head to Colombia, according to the outlet.

On Friday Voepass said the plane was carrying 57 passengers and four crew, but on Saturday the firm confirmed another unaccounted-for passenger had been on the flight, putting the number of casualties at 62.

Authorities are using seat assignments, physical characteristics, documents and belongings such as cell phones to identify the victims, firefighter Maycon Cristo said at the crash site earlier on Saturday as the bodies were being pulled from the wreckage.

Relatives of the victims were brought to Sao Paulo to provide DNA samples to aid in identification of the remains, said state civil defense coordinator Henguel Pereira.

The plane's so-called "black box" containing voice recordings and flight data was undergoing analysis, said Marcelo Moreno, the head of Brazilian aviation accident investigation center Cenipa, at a press conference in Vinhedo.

The plane, an ATR-72 turboprop, was bound for Sao Paulo from Cascavel, in the state of Parana, and crashed around 1:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) in Vinhedo, some 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo. Despite coming down in a residential area, no one on the ground was hurt.

The aircraft was flying normally until 1:21 p.m., when it stopped responding to calls, and radar contact was lost at 1:22 p.m., Brazil's air force said in a statement.

Pilots did not report an emergency or adverse weather conditions, the air force added.

Franco-Italian ATR, jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo, is the dominant producer of regional turboprop planes seating 40 to 70 people. ATR told Reuters on Friday that its specialists were "fully engaged" with the investigation into the crash.