Helicopter that disappeared 12 days ago in Brazil has been found, four passengers killed

A private helicopter that went missing on December 31 in Serra do Mar, a densely forested area on the northern coast of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, was found this Friday after a 12-day search. Colonel Ronaldo Barreto de Oliveira, commander of the military police air group in Sao Paulo, said four passengers on the helicopter were dead.

The plane was in one of the most inaccessible areas of the dense forest surrounding the city of Paraibuna, 120 km from Sao Paulo, a protected area in the middle of the mountains where very few people live and access by land is difficult in many places. . The wreckage of the device was first discovered by a military police aircraft engaged in the search, and then, having received the correct coordinates, an Army Black Hawk helicopter flew to the scene and nine rescue specialists descended to the scene and confirmed there were no survivors.

The helicopter that crashed was carrying 45-year-old Luciana Rodzevich, her daughter Leticia Ayumi Rodzevich Sakumoto, 20, their friend Rafael Torres, 41, and pilot Cassiano Tete Teodoro, 44. The plane took off from Campo de Marte airport, north of the city of Sao Paulo, on the morning of the last day of 2023, heading to the island of Ilha Bela, on the northern coast, where everyone would spend New Year’s Eve, and soon disappeared, leaving no trace. amid very heavy and thick rain fog. .

Since the small device did not have any equipment indicating its location, not even a black box, finding it was an extremely difficult task, and the search was carried out over a gigantic radius of more than five thousand square kilometers, on most days with the same adverse weather conditions as in autumn day. This Friday, just the second day after the clouds and strong winds subsided, the helicopter could be seen in a small clearing in the middle of a dense forest of trees reaching tens of meters in height.