EPAAuthorities confirmed that all bodies have been recovered from the crash site of a plane in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, in which all passengers died.
After a twin-engine turboprop aircraft belonging to the airline Voepass crashed in the city of Vinhedo, teams had been working to find and identify victims of the disaster.
The number of victims was revised upwards to 62 on Saturday.
Voepass had previously stated that the ATR 72-500 was carrying 57 passengers and four crew members between Cascavel in the southern state of Paraná and Guarulhos Airport in São Paulo, but the company later confirmed that another passenger was missing on board the flight.
Footage circulated on social media showing an airplane descending vertically and spiraling.
The plane crashed in a residential area, but no one on the ground was injured. Officials said only one house in a local apartment complex was damaged.
The state of São Paulo said the recovery of the victims’ bodies was completed at 6:30 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. CET) on Saturday.
It said the bodies – 34 men and 28 women – would be taken to a police morgue in São Paulo, where they would be identified and handed over to their families.
Two of the victims, the captain and the first officer, have already been identified, the state confirmed.
It said family members were being accommodated in a hotel in the city to help identify the victims – 38 families have arrived so far.
Captain Maycon Cristo, a fire department spokesman, had previously said teams would rely on a number of factors to identify the passengers.
These include documents and information on the position of the bodies in relation to the seats, as well as mobile phones seized from some of the victims.
The plane crash is the worst in Brazil since 2007, when A TAM Express plane crashed at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo and caught firein which 199 people died.
At this time, it is not known what caused the crash of the ATR 72-500.
Authorities said the flight recorders had been recovered.
The French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR said it would cooperate with the investigation.
According to tracking website Flightradar24, Flight 2283 departed Cascavel at 11:56 a.m. local time (2:56 p.m. GMT) on Friday and was scheduled to arrive at 1:40 p.m.
The aircraft’s last signal was received approximately 20 minutes before its scheduled landing.
The Brazilian Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft, built in 2010, was “in good operating condition and had valid registration and airworthiness certificates.”
All four crew members on board at the time of the accident had the required license and valid qualifications, it said.
The Uopeccan Cancer Hospital in Cascavel told BBC Brazil that two of its assistant doctors were among the deceased passengers.
Local residents witnessed the crash of the passenger plane, while others reported damage to their homes.
Luiz Augusto de Oliveira told Reuters that he, his wife and their maid were at home when “we suddenly saw the plane explode in the backyard of my house.”
He said: “At the time of the collision, we thought that a helicopter had broken down because of the noise.”
He added that everyone in the house was unharmed and that while there was some damage, it was “as minimal as possible, it was material goods. I just have to thank God that the plane crashed like that.”
Another resident, Nathalie Cicari, told CNN Brasil she was eating lunch when she heard “a very loud noise very close by.” She described it as the sound of a roar, only “much louder.”
“I went out onto the balcony and saw the plane spinning. Within seconds I realized this was not a normal movement for an airplane.”
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his solidarity with the families and friends of the victims at an event where he gave a speech.
“I have very bad news to deliver and I would like everyone to stand up so we can observe a minute’s silence,” he told his audience.
He posted on social media that the news of the crash was “very sad.” “My solidarity goes out to the families and friends of the victims,” he said.
The governor of the state of São Paulo, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, has declared three days of mourning.
