• Source:JND
HighLights
  1. Small plane crashed into Belo Horizonte building, killing three.
  2. Pilot, co-pilot, and one passenger confirmed dead.
  3. Two other passengers rescued with serious injuries.

A small aeroplane with five occupants crashed into a building on Monday in the city of Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil, killing three people, local officials and firefighters said. The airplane's pilot and co-pilot were killed by the crash, the fire department said in a statement, while three passengers were rescued in serious condition and taken to the hospital.

It initially reported that four people were on board. Hours later, the Minas Gerais state government said that one of the passengers died in the hospital, adding the other two were still hospitalised and in stable condition.

VIDEO: Small plane crashes into building in Brazil

 

Firefighters work next to the remains of a plane after it crashed into a building in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

There were no residents injured or structural damage to the building, the fire department said. The plane took off early in the afternoon from the Pampulha Airport, about 8 km from central Belo Horizonte, bound for Sao Paulo, according to the fire department. The aircraft remained airborne for only a few minutes before crashing into a three-story residential building.

Similar incident had killed 61 people

This came nearly two years after a passenger plane crashed into a gated residential community in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, killing all 61 people aboard. Officials did not say if anyone was killed on the ground in the neighbourhood where the plane landed in the city of Vinhedo, about 80 kilometres northwest of the metropolis of Sao Paulo. But witnesses at the scene said there were no victims among local residents.

The airline Voepass said that its plane, an ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop, was headed for Sao Paulo’s international airport, Guarulhos with 57 passengers and 4 crew members aboard when it crashed in Vinhedo. It provided a flight manifest with passenger names, but not their nationalities. A prior statement had said there were 58 passengers.

“The company regrets to inform that all 61 people on board flight 2283 died at the site,” Voepass said in a statement. “At this time, Voepass is prioritising provision of unrestricted assistance to the victims’ families and effectively collaborating with authorities to determine the causes of the accident.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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