Fourteen (14) people on a small jet died when the plane crashed in Brazil’s northern Amazonas state.
The aircraft’s pilot approached the tourist town of Barcelos in heavy rain with low visibility and appeared to inadvertently start landing halfway down the runway, Amazonas state security secretary Vinicius Almeida told a news conference.
The plane ran out of the landing strip and crashed. Media reports showed the white jet belly-down on a dirt track, its front end crumpled into dense vegetation.
In an interview with O Globo newspaper, Wilson Lima, governor of Amazonas State, said the bodies were removed from the aircraft and all the victims were Brazilian tourists.
The region faces heavy rainfall, and the most likely cause of the accident was an error in the route taken at the time of landing, Lima added.
The Manaus Aerotaxi airline issued a statement confirming there had been an accident and saying it was investigating. It offered no details.
The Brazilian Air Force said in a statement that investigators were called in to find the reasons for the crash of the small aircraft, an Embraer Bandeirante with the registration PT-SOG.
Located on the Rio Negro, an Amazon tributary, Barcelos borders several national parks and other protected areas. It is the peak season for fishing in the region, a popular spot for catching tropical river species.
Covered mostly in dense rainforests, Amazonas is an adventure travel destination. It receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, according to Amazonastur, the state tourism company.
