Search for jungle river crash victims

At least 16 people were feared dead today after a light aircraft on its way to a Brazilian jungle city crashed into an Amazon river with at least 20 people on board.

Four people survived yesterday’s crash and reports said divers had found six bodies.

The plane was being used as an “air taxi” to ferry passengers between cities in the thick jungle when it crashed in the Manacapuru river about 50 miles south west of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state.

Authorities said 20 people were on board the plane, which was heading to Manaus, but some Brazilian media reports put the number at 24.

Rescuers found four people who escaped without major injuries from the plane.

Divers discovered the bodies of six people inside the submerged plane and believed they would find more when they searched again, fire department Lt Col Dinanci Almeida said.

Survivors told authorities they saw one of the plane’s motors stop, Daniel Guedes, a police official in the city of Manacapuru near the crash site, told the internet news portal Terra.

He said the plane had left the city of Coari, 225 miles south west of Manaus. The flight’s destination was Manaus.

A spokeswoman for Brazil’s Civil Aeronautics Agency – known as ANAC – in Brasilia gave the plane’s tail numbers as PT-SEA. According to ANAC’s website, that corresponds to an Embraer EMB-110P1 model, a small twin turbo-prop plane that carries up to 21 people.

Brazil’s Center for Investigation and Prevention of Flight Accidents, or Cenipa, said the pilot had tried to turn the plane around near the site of the crash.

“The plane lost radio contact near the city of Manacapuru, but had indicated that it was turning around and returning to Coari,” said a Cenipa spokeswoman. “The pilot gave no reason for the action.”

The spokeswoman said the area where the crash occurred had seen rainy conditions throughout the day, but could not confirm what the weather was like when the plane went down.

O Globo newspaper, citing Brazilian aviation officials, said the pilot reported to air controllers in Manaus shortly before the crash that the plane had encountered driving rain.

A cause for the crash was not yet known and it was not clear if any tourists were on board.