A passenger who had been due to be on a plane which crashed in a fiery wreck in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state have told how a cup of coffee saved their lives.
The plane crashed into a gated residential community in Vinhedo, about 50 miles north-west of Sao Paulo on Friday, killing all 62 on board.
Adriano Assis, a hospital worker from Rio De Janeiro, told Brazilian news outlet TV Globo that he narrowly missed the two-hour flight from Cascavel to Guarulhos after mistakenly thinking he had more time to check-in, and going to get a coffee.
He did not realise until it was too late, but an airline worker would not let him board Voepass flight 2283, as it was ready to depart.
“He saved my life. He did his job,” Mr Assis said.
Brazilian emergency crews on Saturday recovered the remains of the 62 victims aboard the airliner.
The bodies of most of the victims - 34 males and 28 females - had already been moved to Sao Paulo's police morgue for identification.
The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot were identified earlier in the day, said Dario Pacheco, mayor of Vinhedo.
Four people with dual citizenship were among the victims, three Venezuelans and one Portuguese woman, said Voepass.
The Venezuelans were a 4-year-old boy, his mother and grandmother, local outlet Globo News reported. The boy's dog was also on the flight, which the family was taking to later head to Colombia, according to the outlet.
The plane's so-called "black box" containing voice recordings and flight data was undergoing analysis, said Marcelo Moreno, the head of Brazilian aviation accident investigation centre Cenipa, at a press conference in Vinhedo.
The aircraft was flying normally until 1:21 p.m., when it stopped responding to calls, and radar contact was lost at 1:22 pm, Brazil's air force said in a statement.
The pilots did not report an emergency or adverse weather conditions, the air force added.
