AFP

All 62 bodies recovered from the wreckage of the Brazilian plane crash

Brazilian authorities on Saturday completed recovering the bodies of the 62 people who died when their plane crashed. Experts began examining the doomed aircraft’s black boxes to determine the cause of the disaster. Videos showed the ATR 72-500 plane plunge in a terrifying downward spiral on Friday before crashing into a residential area in the city of Vinhedo, about 80 kilometers northwest of Brazil’s financial capital Sao Paulo. The plane, operated by airline Voepass, plunged almost vertically, landed on its belly and exploded in flames. The impact was so violent it was almost “flattened,” said Sao Paulo fire brigade lieutenant Olivia Perroni Cazo. “A total of 62 bodies (34 men and 28 women) were recovered and taken to the morgue in Sao Paulo for identification and delivery to their families,” the regional government said Saturday evening. Two have already been identified by their fingerprints. Vinhedo’s mayor Dario Pacheco said they were the pilot and co-pilot. The twin-engine turboprop plane, built by aviation company ATR, flew from Cascavel in the southern state of Parana to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport. Experts from Brazil’s Center for the Investigation and Prevention of Aircraft Accidents (CENIPA) have begun analyzing two black boxes recovered from the wreckage that contain cabin conversations and flight data, said the center’s head, Marcelo Moreno. A preliminary report is expected to be released “estimated within 30 days,” the Brazilian Air Force said. According to the website Flight Radar 24, the plane flew at 17,000 feet (5,180 meters) for about an hour until it began losing altitude at a catastrophic rate at 1:21 p.m. (16:21 GMT). Radar contact was lost at 1:22 p.m., the Air Force reported. It said the plane’s crew “did not declare an emergency or find themselves in adverse weather conditions at any time.” – ‘No technical problems’ – ATR, a joint subsidiary of European giant Airbus and Italian company Leonardo, said its experts would assist with the investigation. The plane, in service since 2010, met current standards, the National Civil Aviation Authority said, adding that all four crew members had all the necessary certificates. Voepass operations manager Marcel Moura said the plane had undergone routine maintenance the night before the accident and “no technical problems” were detected. But experts suspected that icing on the plane’s wings could have caused the accident. Moura said the plane was a type that flies at an altitude “where there is greater susceptibility to icing” but conditions on Friday were “within acceptable parameters for flight”. – National mourning – The fiery crash turned the plane’s fuselage into a mass of twisted metal. Despite the destruction, there were no casualties on the ground.President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has declared three days of national mourning for one of the worst air disasters in the country’s history. “It was terrible, terrible… such a sad tragedy,” said a shaking Lourdes da Silva Astolfo, 67, whose home is just metres from the crash site. She told AFP she first felt a “rumble, almost like a quake” when she suddenly saw the plane almost directly overhead. Seconds later came the deafening impact and the horrified screams of neighbors as a thick cloud of acrid smoke rose. Police cars, ambulances and fire trucks flocked to the normally peaceful, wooded enclave where the plane crashed on Saturday.Voepass said all the victims were travelling on Brazilian identity papers. One woman was a Portuguese citizen and there was also a Venezuelan family of three. It was Brazil’s worst air disaster in 17 years. In 2007, an Airbus A320 operated by Brazilian airline TAM overran the runway at Congonhas airport in São Paulo and crashed into a warehouse, killing all 187 people on board and 12 runway workers.mel/app/db/bbk/st/acb/nro