An air taxi plane crashed in the Brazilian city of Barcelos in the northern state of Amazonas on Saturday afternoon, killing 14 passengers, 12 passengers and two crew members. The crash occurred when the pilot tried to land at the city airport, where it was raining heavily at the time.
“He (the pilot) must have touched down in a dirty area where there were no necessary conditions,” said Amazonas state governor Wilson Lima, confirming the tragedy and that none of the plane’s passengers survived. .
The plane could accommodate 18 people, that is, it was not overcrowded and had permission to fly as an air taxi. The plane took off from the Amazonas state capital of Manaus, heading directly to Barcelos, about 400 kilometers away, and all the passengers were tourists from other regions of Brazil.
“We have just completed the removal of the bodies. They are all Brazilians, tourists. It is Amazonian summer, sport fishing season. These people were probably going fishing in the Rio Negro,” the state governor said.
Apparently, due to heavy rain hitting Barcelos at the time, the pilot was unable to see the point on the runway where he was supposed to land and ended up colliding with some structure at the airport. At Barcelos airport there is no sophisticated equipment to help pilots land in such conditions, everything must be visual, so much so that landings and takeoffs are only allowed in sunlight.
Since Barcelos does not have an Institute of Forensic Medicine or cold storage facilities where the bodies of the victims could be stored and preserved, they were all taken to the assembly hall of the local school. This Sunday morning, a Brazilian Air Force FAB aircraft will fly to Barcelos to pick up the remains and fly them to Manaus.
Author: Domingos Grilo Serrinha This correspondent in Brazil
Source: CM Jornal

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