Passenger plane crashes in Brazil's Sao Paulo state, all 61 aboard killed

A passenger plane crashed into a gated residential community in Brazil's Sao Paulo state on Friday, killing all 61 aboard, the airline company Voepass confirmed.

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.

Authorities did not immediately say what had caused the crash, though the head of Brazilian aviation accident investigation center Cenipa said that the plane's so-called "black box" containing voice recordings and flight data had been recovered from the site.

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. Friday evening, he declared three days of mourning.

The state's firefighters, military police and civil defense authority dispatched teams to the location. Sao Paulo's public security secretary Guilherme Derrite spoke to reporters and confirmed that no survivors had been found. He also said the plane's black box was recovered.

A report from television network Globo's meteorological center said it "confirmed the possibility of the formation of ice in the region of Vinhedo," and local media cited analysts pointing to icing as a potential cause for the crash.

Likewise, Lt. Col. Carlos Henrique Baldi, of the Brazilian air force's center for the investigation and prevention of air accidents, told reporters in a late afternoon press conference that it was still too early to confirm whether ice caused the accident.

The plane is "certified in several countries to fly in severe icing conditions, including in countries unlike ours, where the impact of ice is more significant," said Baldi, who heads the center's investigation division.

In an earlier statement, the center said that the plane's pilots didn't call for help nor say they were operating under adverse weather conditions.

In a separate statement, Brazil's Federal Police said it already had begun its investigation, and had dispatched specialists in plane crashes and the identification of disaster victims.

(With input from Agencies)