The airline Voepass said the plane was en route to Sao Paulo International Airport, taking off from Cascavel, Parana state, and crashed at around 1:30 p.m. Friday local time in the town of Vinhedo, about 80 kilometers northwest of Sao Paulo.

Video footage of the incident shows the ATR-72 aircraft losing control as it crashes behind a cluster of trees near a house, followed by a large plume of black smoke.

Nearby resident Daniel de Lima said he heard a loud noise before looking out of his Vinhedo apartment to see the plane spiraling.

“It was spinning, but it was not moving forward,” he told Reuters. “Shortly after that, it fell out of the sky and exploded.” There were no survivors, city officials in Valinhos, near Vinhedo, said.

But only one house was damaged in the incident and no residents were injured. “I almost believe the pilot was trying to avoid a densely populated area nearby,” De Lima said.

Video of the incident (source: YouTube/SkyNews)

X [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkqLocWVkMs[/embed]

Authorities have not yet said what caused the crash. The head of Brazil's air accident investigation center Cenipa said the plane's "black box" had been recovered at the scene.

Video of the crash showed clear weather, with light rain and winds of 10 km/h forecast for the area.

John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reviewed some of the footage shared on social media and said the crash did not appear to be caused by weather. “It could have been a failure of one engine that the crew did not handle properly,” he said.

Voepass, Brazil's fourth-largest airline by market share, said it could not provide any further information on what caused the crash. It said the plane was carrying 57 passengers and four crew members.

ATR, which is jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo, is the main manufacturer of the turboprop aircraft, which can seat between 40 and 70 people. ATR said its experts were “fully focused” on the investigation into the crash. The plane was powered by a PW 127 engine made by Canada’s Pratt & Whitney.

This is the worst air accident in Brazil since 199 people died in 2007 on a flight operated by TAM Airlines, which later merged with LAN to become LATAM Airlines as it is today.

Huy Hoang (according to Reuters, CNN, AP)