Experienced pilot at the controls of Brazil plane that plummeted from the sky ID’d as death toll climbs to 62

The victims of the fiery plane crash in Brazil that killed all 62 passengers on board Friday included a pilot with 10 years of experience and a father traveling with his young daughter.

Captain Danilo Santos Romano, 35, was the first victim identified in the wake of the fiery crash, which left no survivors when it went down in the Sao Paolo state, 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 São 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 twin-engine ATR 72-500 that went down in a residential neighborhood in Vinhedo with 58 passengers and four crew members on board, officials confirmed Saturday morning.

There were no survivors.

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The other victims included co-pilot Humberto de Campos Alencar e Silva, 61, and flight attendants Débora Soper Avila, 29, and Rubia Silva de Lima, 41, Globo TV News said, citing the flight manifest.

An elderly couple – José Cloves Arruda, 76, and his wife Maria Auxiliadora vaz de Arruda, 74 – perished in the wreck, as did Rafael Fernando dos Santos, 41, and his daughter, Liz Ibba dos Santos, 3.

The father and daughter were going to spend Brazilian Father’s Day together in Santa Catarina, Globo TV News reported.

There were also several doctors on board who were heading to a seminar.

Two of the doctors were Arianne Albuquerque Estavan Risso and Mariana Comiran Belim, both clinical oncology residents from the Cascavel Cancer Hospital (Uopeccan).

The young physicians “treated all patients with great dedication, affection and respect,” the hospital said in a statement.

“It is no wonder that the two were frequently praised by our ombudsman offices. The love that they both had for their profession was very clear. Now, all that is left for us is the longing and memories of two young doctors who left us too soon.”

The reported death toll of 61 was updated on Saturday when Voepass confirmed that a 58th passenger, Constantino Thé Maia, was not on the manifest due to a “technical issue,” Globo TV News said.

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Several of the passengers had shared social media updates of themselves boarding or about to embark on the airplane before takeoff on Friday morning.

All the bodies of the victims were expected to be removed from the crash site by the end of Saturday, according to officials.

Nearly 30 bodies had been removed from the crash site by midday Saturday, officials said.

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

The São Paulo-bound plane took off from Cascavel at 11:56 a.m. 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.

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“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, São Paulo Public Security Secretary Guilherme Derrite confirmed.

The contents of the box will be analyzed 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 spiraling to the ground.

On Oct. 31, 1994, an American Eagle ATR 72-200 went down over Indiana. The cause of the crash was eventually attributed to ice buildup 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 center 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.

With Post wires

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