First victims of ill-fated plane identified

Captain Danilo Santos Romano, 35, was the first victim named in the wake of the fiery crash, Brazilian outlet Globo TV News reported.

Romano worked as a pilot for over a decade, and had been with the Voepass airline since 2022, according to his LinkedIn.

The pilot, who lived in Sao Paulo, had logged over 4,500 total flight hours, his profile said.

Romano was “always smiling” and “willing to help,” a colleague’s review read.

Photos from the young pilot’s Facebook profile showed him competing in a recent 15K and celebrating the Palmeiras football club.

Romano was in the cockpit of the ATR 72-500 that went down in a residential neighbourhood in Vinhedo with 62 people – 58 passengers and four crew members – on board, officials confirmed Saturday morning.

There were no survivors.

The other victims included co-pilot Humberto de Campos Alencar e Silva, 61, and flight attendant Débora Soper Avila, 29, Globo TV News said, citing the flight manifest.

There were also several doctors on board who were heading to a seminar, as well as a father, Rafael Fernando dos Santos, and his daughter, Liz Ibba Dos Santos, 3.

The reported death toll was updated on Saturday when officials confirmed that a 58th passenger was not on the manifest due to a “technical issue,” Globo TV News said.

As of Saturday morning, 15 bodies had been removed from the wreckage, the outlet added.

The remains were taken to the Legal Medical Institute for formal identification.

The São Paulo-bound plane took off from Cascavel at 11:56am local time Friday, and flew for about an hour and a half without incident, officials said.

The crew did not call for help or report any adverse weather conditions.

There was also no evidence that the crew tried to contact the controllers at nearby regional airports, Ports and Airports Minister Silvio Costa Filho told reporters Friday night.

“The entire crew was competent,” Voepass CEO Eduardo Busch said at a press conference, according to CNN.

“We are waiting for access to all communications between the pilot and the control tower to have a broader understanding of what happened.”

The plane’s black box containing voice recordings and flight data was recovered from the crash site, Sao Paulo Public Security Secretary Guilherme Derrite confirmed.

The contents of the box will be analysed for possible clues about what caused the plane to plummet over 13,000 feet in just one minute.

The shocking descent was captured in a harrowing video, which showed the aircraft spiralling to the ground.

In October 1994, an American Eagle ATR 72-200 went down over Indiana. The cause of the crash was eventually attributed to ice build-up while the plane was circling in a holding pattern.

Marcelo Moura, the director of operations for Voepass, told reporters Friday night that there was ice in the forecast for Friday, but it was within acceptable levels for the aircraft.

The doomed plane is “certified in several countries to fly in severe icing conditions, including in countries unlike ours, where the impact of ice is more significant,” said Lt. Col. Carlos Henrique Baldi of the Brazilian air force’s centre for the investigation and prevention of air accidents.

The plane crashed in the yard of a private home in a condominium community. There were no injuries on the ground, locals said.

On Saturday, forensic team vehicles and other investigators still milled around the site as officials worked to retrieve the bodies of the victims and collect evidence from the wreck.

This article originally appeared in The NY Post and was reproduced with permission.