“There are nine deaths confirmed by the civil defence, and there are no survivors of the plane,” Director of the Interior Police Department of the state civil police, Cleber dos Santos Lima, said
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 "10 killed in plane crash in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul")
A drone view shows people working at the site of a plane crash. Image used for representative purpose/Reuters
At least 10 people died on Sunday (December 22) when a small plane crashed in the tourist city of Gramado, located in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities reported.
Gramado is a popular tourist city in Brazil, with a significant influx of visitors during the Christmas season.
“There are nine deaths confirmed by the civil defence, and there are no survivors of the plane,” Director of the Interior Police Department of the state civil police, Cleber dos Santos Lima, told AFP.
At least 15 people were taken to the hospital, most for smoke inhalation from the fire caused by the crash.
The plane, a Piper Cheyenne 400 turboprop, had taken off from the municipality of Canela, another tourist town in Rio Grande do Sul.
It crashed into the chimney of a building on the way to Gramado. According to a statement by the Rio Grande do Sul state security secretariat, the aircraft then hit the second floor of a house and “fell on a furniture store”.
An inn was also damaged, it added.
The number of passengers and crew that the aircraft was carrying is yet to be confirmed. However, authorities had earlier said that they thought the plane was carrying 10 people.
For the crash that took place on Sunday, the potential reasons are not yet known.
Second plane crash in 4 months
This is the second small plane crash in Brazil in the past four months.
Earlier, in August, Voepass Flight 2283, flying from Cascavel Airport to São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport, crashed and killed all 62 people– passengers and the crew– onboard.
That incident had taken place after the plane’s crew lost control of the aircraft while it was flying through weather that was conducive to severe icing conditions, according to a report by Aviation Week. That particular incident drew attention to de-icing systems onboard.
With inputs from AFP
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