A passenger plane carrying 62 people crashed in a fiery wreck in a residential area of a city in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state Friday, the airline said, but it was not immediately clear how many people were injured or killed. The airline VOEPASS confirmed in a statement that a plane headed for Sao Paulo’s international airport Guarulhos crashed in the city of Vinhedo with 58 passengers and 4 crew members aboard. The statement didn’t say what caused the accident. At an event in southern Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asked the crowd to stand and observe a minute of silence as he shared the news. He said that it appeared that all passengers and crew aboard had died, without elaborating as to how that information had been obtained.

Investigation into the Cause of the Crash

The official investigation into the fatal plane crash in Brazil will be the key to figuring out what caused the aircraft to drop out of the sky and into a residential area on Friday. Video posted on social media shows the plane falling nearly straight down. Brazil’s Civil Defense said it crashed into multiple houses, as reported by CNN Brasil. “We don’t know if there was any kind of mid-air collision, whether there was an engine failure. We just don’t have enough facts,” CNN aviation analyst Peter Goetz told CNN’s Isa Soares. But what the clip does show is that the plane was “out of control” and the pilots did not have enough altitude to recover, he said. “It was in a very perilous state, but how it got there will be the job of the investigators to figure out,” Goetz said.

The Aftermath of the Crash

One woman captured video of the aftermath of a plane crashing into her neighbor’s house outside of São Paulo. The aircraft crashed into multiple houses, according to Brazil’s Civil Defense, reported by CNN Brasil. At least 62 people on the plane were killed, according to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones said she spoke to that woman on the phone. The video shows smoke and fire coming up from below her building. She told CNN she was eating lunch in her kitchen when she saw the plane going down. She said she was terrified and ducked down and started praying. That woman told Jones it was a “moment of panic in the city.” Jones reported that the woman is safe now, but she is not able to get back to her apartment. The private roads that lead up to the properties are closed off to everyone, including residents. She said the woman told her first responders are in the area.

Response to the Crash

Multiple agencies are at the scene of the crash helping with rescue efforts, the São Paulo Government said in a statement. Civil Defense and the Public Security Secretariat are mobilized in the Capela neighborhood in Vinhedo, Brazil, the statement said. The fire department sent seven teams to the scene of the crash. The Technical-Scientific Police Superintendency (SPTC) and the Civil and Military Police were also mobilized to rescue the victims. Teams from the Legal Medical Institute (IML) and those responsible for collecting bodies were additionally sent to the scene, according to the government statement. Local hospitals are on alert to receive any patients, the statement said. São Paulo Gov. Tarcísio de Freitas is returning to the state of São Paulo and is going to the municipality of Vinhedo to monitor the rescue operation, the statement continued.

The Plane and the Airline

The plane that crashed in Brazil was an ATR 72-500, a twin-engine turboprop made by ATR, a joint venture of two European aerospace manufacturers, Airbus and Leonardo. The plane was manufactured in 2010 and was approved to carry up to 68 passengers. The airline operating the flight, VoePass, said that Flight 2283 had crashed in the Brazilian city of Vinhedo, not far from its destination, São Paulo. The flight had taken off from Cascavel, Brazil, about 450 miles away, for a nearly two-hour scheduled flight that VoePass has been operating daily. VoePass, formerly known as Passaredo, is a small Brazilian airline that operates a fleet of 15 ATR aircraft to serve midsize cities around Brazil. It transported roughly 500,000 passengers last year, representing just less than 0.5 percent of the Brazilian market. There are more than 800 ATR aircraft flying around the world, accounting for just under 3 percent of the active global fleet of passenger planes, according to Cirium, an aviation data company. The aircraft are most popular in Asia and Europe, though Brazil is a leading operator of ATR planes.

A Tragedy for Brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at an event on Friday, asked for a minute of silence for the victims. “We just have to mourn and care for the families, care for the people who are now going to be very nervous,” he told reporters later. “Lots of sadness in the air.” The plane crash is a tragedy for Brazil, and the country is mourning the loss of life. The investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing, and the world is watching to see what caused this terrible accident.

A Moment of Silence

Sixty-two people are dead after a plane crash in Brazil, the country’s president said. “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,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on X.

A Plane Out of Control

There was no apparent crash landing. This was a plane totally out of control. Spiralling, in a terrifying manner, to the ground before bursting into clouds of black smoke and flames. Its final moments were captured by horrified onlookers, going about their day in the countryside town of Vinhedo outside São Paulo. It was a short internal flight from the Brazilian state of Paraná to São Paulo, supposed to be just short of two hours. After a descent like this, the outcome felt tragically inevitable.

A Moment of Shock and Grief

Fifty-eight passengers and four crew members were on board and local authorities say there are no survivors. It landed in a residential area, but no one on the ground was injured. Just one home in the residential complex it landed in was damaged, but none of the residents are reported hurt. The airline says it is not yet clear what caused the crash. There are no answers yet for the friends and families on board - only unimaginable shock and grief.