AP — SAO PAULO (Brazil) On Friday morning, immediately after taking off from a nearby private airfield, a tiny aircraft crashed on an avenue in Sao Paulo, resulting in the deaths of both the pilot and the owner of the jet, according to the police. Two people were the only ones on board at the time.
It was in the bustling Barra Funda neighborhood on the west side of the city, close to the city’s central business district, that the plane crashed. As stated in the statement released by the firefighters, a portion of the plane collided with a bus, causing an injury to a woman who was riding inside, and another piece of the wreckage collided with a biker. The two were both receiving medical attention.
A later announcement stated that four additional people who had been hurt were sent to hospitals in the vicinity with injuries that were considered to be minor. In a statement made on X, Governor Tarcísio de Freitas stated that the two individuals who had passed away were the pilot, Gustavo Medeiros, and the owner of the aircraft, Márcio Carpena. During the moment of the collision, the local television network TV Globo was able to obtain a CCTV tape that recorded the scene. A few meters (yards) beyond an intersection, where a line of automobiles was waiting to move forward, the jet crashed into the avenue and caused several people to be injured.
The fuselage of the plane and the bus were both shown on fire in images that were published in the local media. Firefighters were seen working to put out the flames. In addition to being home to office buildings, the avenue is also in close proximity to a significant bus, train, and metro station.
It was not clear what had led the plane to lose altitude fewer than three miles (five kilometers) from the private airstrip from where it had taken off a few minutes earlier. There was no information available. It was destined for Porto Alegre, which is located in the southern of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
According to the Brazilian Air Force, they will conduct an investigation into the mishap as quickly as they can.
In recent years, Brazil has experienced a series of fatal accidents involving tiny aircraft, one of which occurred in August of last year in Vinhedo, which is located close to Sao Paulo. This accident was particularly shocking. There were 72 people on board the passenger plane when it crashed into the backyard of a home in a gated community, resulting in their deaths. The images from that disaster showed the plane plummeting in a flat spin before touching down.