Vinhedo, Brazil, Aug 10 (EFE).- Firefighters on Saturday finished recovering the bodies of 62 people who died in a plane crash in the Brazilian state of São Paulo a day earlier, official sources reported.
The operation was completed at 6:30 pm, almost 30 hours after the plane operated by Voepass airline went into a tailspin in a residential community in Vinhedo, a city in the interior of São Paulo state.
“The work of rescuing the bodies, which was the most urgent part, is concluded thanks to the integration of the efforts of several entities that participated in the tasks,” a spokesperson of the Fire Department, Lieutenant Olivia Perroni, said at a press conference held near the crash site.
She added that 34 male and 28 female bodies were recovered from the rubble, including those of two minors, which correspond to the 62 occupants of the aircraft – 58 passengers and 4 crew members -, according to the list released by Voepass.
The spokesperson also said that 50 bodies have already been transferred to the Institute of Legal Medicine of São Paulo, where 30 have already undergone an autopsy and identification tasks are underway.
According to the firefighters, so far two of the victims, the pilot and the co-pilot, have been identified through fingerprint tests.
Perroni said that firefighters had difficulty rescuing the last few bodies, which were in the rear of the aircraft, since this was the part that was most destroyed by the impact and by the fire that broke out after the crash.
According to firefighters, the bodies that were in the front part of the aircraft can be identified by fingerprint tests, but those in the rear part, which were burned, will need other types of techniques, including genetic comparison.
Another spokesperson of the Fire Department, Captain Michael Cristo, said that the bodies were found in the seats they occupied in the aircraft, which could facilitate their identification.
About 250 firefighters, rescuers, experts, police and investigators are taking part in the operations, which will continue on Sunday with the removal of the debris and the collection of evidence for an investigation into the accident.
Voepass released a statement on Saturday morning to include a man in the list of victims who was not initially listed due to check-in validation errors, confirming that there were 62 victims.
The crashed plane, a twin-engine ATR-72-500 model made in France, was traveling between Cascavel and São Paulo and crashed when it was about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from its destination.
Despite crashing in a residential area, the plane did not damage any buildings or cause any victims on the ground. EFE
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