Plane crash claims at least two lives as light aircraft smashes into a bus in Sao Paulo
7 February 2025, 12:04 | Updated: 7 February 2025, 13:30
A plane crash in Brazil has claimed two lives after the light aircraft smashed into a bus while attempting an emergency landing on a street in Sao Paulo, local media report.
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The light aircraft - a twin-engine Beech F90 King Air - crashed into vehicles on the on the busy Marques de Sao Vicente Avenue in Sao Paulo, Brazil, around 7.20am local time (10.20am UK time).
It went down in the Barra Funda neighbourhood on the city's west side.
A piece of the plane hit a bus, injuring one woman inside, while a motorcyclist was struck by another piece of wreckage, the local firefighter corps said in a statement.
Both are receiving medical care.
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Triste mas confirmado a queda de uma aeronave em São Paulo ! @OnDisasters pic.twitter.com/32LV7JqLY2
— Henrique Garcia (@luizhen95262129) February 7, 2025
The other passengers on the bus are understood to have escaped safely.
Locals reported hearing an explosion and seeing a huge plume of black smoke.
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."
Another witness, Adriano Rolim, said: "The pilot tried to land on Marques de Sao Vicente, and fortunately many cars swerved, but the plane hit the back of the bus and ended up exploding. The impact was huge, very scary."
Images from local media showed the plane's fuselage and the bus on fire, with firefighters working to extinguish the blaze.
The plane was bound for Porto Alegre, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.
The cause of the crash is being investigated.
