A hero pilot killed with four members of his family crashed after trying at the last minute to avoid landing in a field where people were playing football.
The incident took place in Jaboticabal, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, at around 9am on Saturday, 23rd December, with local media reporting that the five were from the same family.
The footage, shot by a horrified onlooker, shows the burning remains of the aircraft after it crashed.
The victims have been named as Delcides Menezes Tiago, 65, a businessman, who was also the pilot and owner of the aircraft, Renata Garcia Nogueira, 39, Edson da Silva Teles, 42 years old, Eduarda Garcia da Silva, 17, and Jose Ricardo Nogueira Teles, 5.
Eduarda is understood to have been the niece of Renata and Edson, who were Jose’s parents.
Local media reported that the aircraft exploded after it crashed. With locals saying that they heard the plane’s engine spluttering and then failing before it crashed.
The five victims were reportedly on board the aircraft when it crashed. With at least two of them burning to death on the spot when it exploded and a third being treated by responding medics but who did not survive.
Tiago was reportedly the owner of an optical business in the state and was a licensed pilot.
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Local flower seller Reginaldo Ferreira told local media that the pilot had tried to land the plane but was unable to do so, saying: “I was in my home area, I had just got up, and I heard this plane passing, it was coming in low to crash land.
“It tried several times to land near here, it was unsuccessful. The engine was failing. It came, tried to land on the field, but I think it had to move as people were playing football. He tried to leave again to land somewhere else, he went up. But there was no time, he fell out of nowhere and the plane exploded.”
The aircraft was reportedly a single-engine RV-10 that was built in 2012.
The causes of the accident are still being investigated but local media said that the plane could normally only carry a pilot and three passengers and might have been over capacity.
