In Brazil, a light aircraft crashed into a restaurant.
The resort town of Capão da Canoa in southern Brazil was the scene of a plane crash on the morning of April 3. A Piper JetPROP DLX light aircraft, barely airborne, crashed directly into a local restaurant.
The crash occurred around 10:40 a.m. on Friday. The plane, carrying four people, was scheduled to depart for São Paulo. However, it failed to gain altitude: the Piper struck a power pole on a busy tourist street, lost control, and crashed into the cafe.
The impact and the ensuing powerful explosion were captured on CCTV cameras, sending a mushroom cloud of smoke rising over the residential area.
There were no survivors. The pilot, the aircraft's owner, and a married couple, businessmen from São Paulo, were killed.
The restaurant was closed at that hour, and there were no staff or customers inside. Despite the fire that broke out, serious spread to neighboring residential buildings was prevented thanks to the prompt action of fire services, who contained the blaze within a short time.
Aviation safety experts are currently working on the scene. The leading theory is a technical malfunction or pilot error during takeoff, which prevented the aircraft from gaining altitude and caused it to crash into a pole at the end of the runway.
