21 bodies found after the disaster

At least 21 bodies have been found at the site of a plane crash in the Brazilian state of São Paulo that killed all on board.

Crews worked through the night to find victims of the disaster after a twin-engine turboprop plane operated by Voepass airline crashed in the town of Vinhedo.

The death toll was revised upwards on Saturday to 62.

Voepass had previously reported that the ATR 72-500 was carrying 57 passengers and four crew members from Cascavel, in the southern state of Paraná, to Guarulhos airport in the city of São Paulo. But it later confirmed that another passenger was missing from the flight.

Images circulating on social media show a plane descending vertically, forming a spiral as it falls.

The plane crashed in a residential area, but no one on the ground was injured. Authorities said only one house in a condominium complex was damaged.

Capt. Maycon Cristo, a spokesman for the firefighters involved in the recovery, said that so far two people have been identified from evidence recovered at the scene.

He said teams were relying on a number of factors to help identify passengers.

These include documents and the position of the bodies in relation to the seats, as well as mobile phones recovered from some of the victims.

Captain Cristo said the victims were being transferred to a police morgue in São Paulo.

Lieutenant Ramatuel Silvino of the São Paulo Civil Protection Service said the family members would stay at a hotel in the city.

The plane crash is the worst in Brazil since 2007, when A TAM Express plane crashed and caught fire at Congonhas Airport in São Paulokilling 199 people.

At this stage it is not known what caused the ATR 72-500 to crash.

Authorities said the flight recorders had been recovered.

ATR, the Franco-Italian aircraft manufacturer, said it would cooperate with the investigation.

According to tracking website Flightradar24, Flight 2283 took off from Cascavel at 11:56 a.m. local time (2:56 p.m. GMT) on Friday and was due to arrive at 1:40 p.m.

The last signal received from the aircraft was received approximately 20 minutes before the scheduled landing time.

Brazil’s civil aviation agency said the plane, built in 2010, was “in good working order, with valid registration and airworthiness certificates.”

The four crew members who were on board at the time of the accident were all duly authorised and had valid qualifications, he added.

Cascavel University Cancer Hospital told BBC Brazil that two of its trainee doctors were among the passengers who died.

Local residents witnessed the moment the airliner crashed, while others described the damage to their homes.

Luiz Augusto de Oliveira told Reuters that he, his wife and their housekeeper were at home when “suddenly we saw the plane explode in the backyard of my house.”

“At the time of the collision, we thought it was a disabled helicopter, because of the noise,” he said.

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 property. I just have to thank God for the way the plane crashed.”

Another resident, Nathalie Cicari, told CNN Brasil that she was having lunch when she heard a “very loud noise very close by,” describing it as the sound of a drone but “much louder.”

“I went out onto the balcony and saw the plane turning. Within seconds I realized that this was not a normal movement for an airplane.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his solidarity with the families and friends of the victims at an event where he spoke.

“I must be the bearer of very bad news and I would like everyone to stand up so we can have a minute’s silence,” he told his audience.

He posted on social media that the news of the accident was “very sad.” “All my solidarity with the families and friends of the victims,” ​​he said.

The governor of the state of São Paulo, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, declared three days of mourning.