All 61 people on board a plane were killed when it crashed near São Paulo, Brazil. The regional turboprop aircraft, which was en route to São Paulo, went down in a residential area near Vinhedo on Friday.

Officials did not confirm whether anyone on the ground was killed in the neighbourhood where the plane crashed in Vinhedo, approximately 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of São Paulo. However, witnesses at the scene reported that there were no casualties among local residents.

The airline Voepass stated that its ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop aircraft was en route to São Paulo’s international airport, Guarulhos, with 57 passengers and 4 crew members on board when it crashed in Vinhedo. The airline provided a flight manifest listing the passengers' names but did not include their nationalities. A previous statement had mentioned 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.”

At an event in southern Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva informed the crowd of the tragedy and requested a minute of silence. Later that evening, he declared three days of mourning.

The state's firefighters, military police, and civil defence authority quickly dispatched teams to the crash site. São Paulo's public security secretary, Guilherme Derrite, spoke to reporters, confirming that no survivors had been found and that the plane's black box had been recovered.

Voepass, an unlisted airline, reportedly said that it could not provide further details on the cause of the crash. The aircraft, identified by FlightRadar24 as an ATR 72-500 turboprop, had the registration PS-VPB.

ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and the Italian aerospace group Leonardo.

Shortly after the crash, Sao Paulo's state fire brigade dispatched seven crews to the scene.

The ATR 72 is typically used for shorter flights and is manufactured by a joint venture between Airbus in France and Italy’s Leonardo S.p.A. According to the Aviation Safety Network's database, crashes involving various models of the ATR 72 have resulted in 470 fatalities since the 1990s.

The plane crashed in the Capela neighbourhood, a district on the outskirts of Vinhedo, a prosperous city with a population of 77,000. The flight had departed from Cascavel, in Paraná state.

Image source: AP