Written by Sebastian Rocandio
VENEDO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian civil defense teams worked through the night to recover the remains of passengers from a plane that crashed on Friday near Sao Paulo, killing all 62 people on board.
The Sao Paulo state government said at least 21 bodies had been recovered by Saturday morning, with two of the victims identified at the scene. All the bodies were being taken to the Sao Paulo police morgue.
Regional carrier Voipas said on Friday the plane was carrying 57 passengers and four crew, but the company confirmed on Saturday that another unaccounted for passenger was on the flight, bringing the death toll to 62.
Firefighter Maicon Christou at the scene said the location of the bodies in the crashed plane, physical characteristics, documents and belongings such as cell phones were used to help identify the victims.
“Once we have collected all this evidence, we will remove the victims from the wreckage and put them in the vehicle that will be transported to Sao Paulo,” he added.
Relatives of the victims have been flown to Sao Paulo to help provide genetic material to identify body parts and other information about the dead, said Hinguel Pereira, civil defense coordinator for the Sao Paulo state government.
The ATR-72 turboprop plane was heading to Sao Paulo from Cascavel in Parana state and crashed at around 1:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) in the town of Vinhedo, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo.
Franco-Italian ATR, jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo, is the dominant producer of regional turboprop aircraft that can seat 40 to 70 passengers. ATR told Reuters on Friday that its specialists were “fully engaged” in the investigation into the crash.