A plane carrying 19 people crashed in a mountainous region outside Rio de Janeiro, killing all on board.
The small LET 410 twin-engine plane belonging to the local Team airline went missing last night about 20 minutes after leaving the city of Macae, 110 miles east of Rio de Janeiro, said Roni Alberto de Azevedo, a spokesman with the Rio de Janeiro State Civil Defense Department.
Rescue workers found the plane's wreckage in Saquarema, some 60 miles east of Rio, nearly 10 hours after it disappeared from radar screens. Authorities said rescuers had to walk nearly three hours to get the remote area.
The aircraft carrying 17 passengers and two crew members was due to land in Rio after a short domestic flight.
Officials from Brazil's federal aviation authority arrived at the scene to investigate the cause.
There were no reports of severe weather where the Czech-made plane disappeared.
Another company director, Mauro Almeida, said it was the airline's first accident since it began operating in 2001. He said the pilot, Brazilian Michael Peter Hutten, had about 30 years of experience and was a former air force pilot.
Farias said the aircraft, which had a capacity to carry 19 passengers and two crew members, was at least five years old and had recently gone through a two-month routine maintenance. It also had been inspected by the aviation authority.
Four employees from Brazil's state-owned energy company, Petrobras, were among the victims, Farias said.
The victims' relatives were taken to a local hotel to wait for more information from the airline, which operates short domestic flights in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Officials set up a base in a small town near the crash site to coordinate the recovery efforts. Two helicopters were sent to aid in the operation.
Local media said rural workers in the mountainous region between Macae and Rio de Janeiro heard an explosion after a plane flew very low overhead.
AP