SAO PAULO — A small plane crashed on a street in Sao Paulo on Friday morning right after leaving a nearby private airport. The pilot and the owner of the plane died in the crash, according to officials. Only the two of them were on board.
The plane crashed in the busy Barra Funda area on the west side of the city, close to downtown. A part of the plane hit a bus, hurting a woman inside. Another piece of the wreck hit a motorcyclist, according to the firemen. Both were getting medical treatment.
A later update said that four more hurt people were taken to nearby hospitals for minor injuries. Governor Tarcísio de Freitas announced on X that the two people who died were the pilot, Gustavo Medeiros, and the plane’s owner, Márcio Carpena. A CCTV film from the local TV station TV Globo captured the moment of the crash. The plane slammed into the avenue a few meters (yards) past an intersection, where a line of cars was ready to move forward.
Local media showed images of the plane and the bus on fire, while firemen worked to put out the flames. The street has office buildings and a main bus, train, and subway stop close by.
It is unclear what caused the plane to drop in altitude less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the private airport where it had taken off just a few minutes before. It was heading to Porto Alegre, in the southern part of Rio Grande do Sul state.
The Brazilian Air Force stated that it will quickly look into the crash.
Brazil has experienced several serious small plane crashes recently, including a shocking one last August in Vinhedo, near Sao Paulo. Pictures from the crash showed a passenger plane spinning sideways before it fell into the backyard of a house in a gated neighborhood, resulting in the deaths of all 72 people on board.
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