Brazilian airline crash death toll rises above 60

Brazilian airline Voepass raised the death toll to 62 with 58 passengers plus four crew members aboard its plane that crashed Friday, and Brazilian investigators recovered the plane’s flight recorders.

Voepass said Flight 2283-PS-VPB took off from Cascavel in the state of Paraná at 11:46 a.m. local time and was bound for São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport.

Voepass initially reported 57 passengers plus four crew members but revised the number of passengers to 58 and raised the total deaths to 62.

There were no survivors in the crash near the city of Vinhedo in São Paulo state.

The aircraft crashed in a residential area but did not cause casualties among local residents or visitors.

The aircraft was an ATR 72-500, which is a twin-engine turboprop used by regional airlines and designed in Italy and France and built in France by ATR.

The Brazilian Air Force’s CENIPA investigations unit reported it recovered both flight recorders carried by the aircraft and included cockpit voice recordings and flight data records.

CENIPA will conduct the crash investigation while the Brazilian government will conduct a judicial investigation, CENIPA Air Brigadier Marcelo Morena told reporters.

The aircraft was built in 2010 and delivered to Albanian airline Belle Air.

After Belle Air went out of business, Nordic Aviation Capital acquired the aircraft, which it leased to the Pelita Air Service in Indonesia.

The aircraft suffered damaged nose gear during a “bounced landing” in 2017, which triggered an accident investigation, FlightGlobal reported.

Voepass leased the aircraft in 2023, registered it and obtained an airworthiness certification.

All four of its deceased crew members were licensed and qualified to operate the aircraft.