Sao Paulo Brazil plane crash latest updates: Two dead after aircraft hits bus as it crashes into busy road in ‘huge explosion’
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The owner of a plane and a pilot were killed and six others injured when a plane smashed into a road, partly hitting a bus in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.
The light aircraft plummeted into a street of busy traffic, narrowly missing a queue of cars at a crossroads and causing the bus to burst into flames.
It happened in the busy Barra Funda neighbourhood on the city’s west side, and huge plumes of thick black smoke could be seen across Marquês de São Vicente after the crash.
Witness Genival Dantas Arraes said: “The plane suddenly came down the avenue and I just saw everything flying and the fireball.
“It exploded immediately. Everyone was paralysed. The plane was ripping up palm trees and signs.”
Two people – a motorcyclist and a woman on the bus – were injured when they were struck by debris.
The aircraft, a small twin-engine King Air, had left Campo de Marte Airport, a nearby private airport. The control tower lost contact with the plane minutes later.
Pilot and plane owner found dead in fuselage
The bodies of the pilot and plane’s owner were found in the fuselage of the Beech F90 King Air aircraft that took off from Sao Paulo bound for the city of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, according to local authorities.
The plane crashed on the Marques de Sao Vicente Avenue and then hit the bus.
Jane Dalton7 February 2025 16:58
Pilot and plane owner killed
The two people killed have been identified as the pilot and the plane’s owner.
Sao Paulo governor Tarcisio de Freitas said they were pilot Gustavo Medeiros and owner Marcio Carpena.
Jane Dalton7 February 2025 16:36
In pictures: Devastation caused by explosion
Jane Dalton7 February 2025 16:30
Plane erupted into fireball, witness says
Witness Genival Dantas Arraes, who watched as the plane erupted into a “fireball” on impact, said: “I was going to take the access to Avenida Sumaré and was going to take the return, when suddenly the plane came down the avenue and I just saw everything flying and the fireball.
“It exploded immediately. Everyone was paralysed.
“The plane was ripping up palm trees and signs. It went by very quickly.”
Jane Dalton7 February 2025 16:10
Watch: Wreckage burns
Jane Dalton7 February 2025 15:47
Tally of injured put at six
The number of people injured in the crash has been put at six, authorities say.
Fire chiefs said a woman who was travelling on the bus and a biker struck by a piece of equipment were taken to hospital. Four others sustained minor injuries.
Jane Dalton7 February 2025 15:25
