A small aircraft fell from the air and slammed into a Brazilian restaurant, resulting in the deaths of all four individuals on board and creating an enormous fireball that barely avoided people walking on a neighborhood street.
The Piper Malibu JetPROP departed from Capão da Canoa Airport at approximately 10:35 a.m. local time on Friday, April 3, heading toward Ibitinga in the state of São Paulo. Shortly after takeoff, the single-engine turboprop struck a utility pole close to the runway’s end and crashed into the Dom Inácio restaurant on Avenida Valdomiro Cândido dos Reis in Capão da Canoa, a coastal city on the shore of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil.
Surveillance cameras recorded the terrible moment the aircraft, with its nose pointed steeply upward, struck the shuttered restaurant and detonated in a mushroom cloud of flames and dense black smoke. Video shows the plane traveling perilously low above the neighborhood before impact, narrowly missing pedestrians and bicyclists who fled as the fireball ignited.
One individual visible in the CCTV video appeared to be close to the impact location but succeeded in running away just as the aircraft struck.
The four deceased have been named as pilots Nelio Maria Batista Pessanha and Renan Eduardo Saes, together with businesspeople Déborah Belanda Ortolani and Luis Antonio Ortolani, who served as event management executives. All four perished at the location.
The aircraft had initially taken off from Itápolis in São Paulo state, made a refueling stop at Forquilhinha airport in Santa Catarina, then proceeded to Capão da Canoa to collect the two business passengers prior to the deadly takeoff.
Officials from the Civil Defense of Rio Grande do Sul hurried to the crash location and verified the aircraft had “lost altitude and hit a restaurant that was closed,” according to Xinhua. Crews evacuated surrounding residences and secured the area as emergency personnel worked to bring the fire under control.
In a fortunate turn amid the disaster, the Dom Inácio restaurant was not open at the time of the incident. No casualties on the ground were documented, though adjacent homes suffered damage from the blast and flames. A nearby shop was also shuttered, avoiding additional deaths.
The Fire Department, Military Police, municipal teams, and the CEEE electricity company all delivered assistance at the location. Sabrina Ribas, communications coordinator for the Civil Defense of Rio Grande do Sul, verified that surrounding residents were evacuated as a safety measure.
A witness recounted watching the incident happen in real time. “It went up, but it didn’t fully climb; it went up, lost power, the engine was making a noise,” truck driver Silvio Dias Luiz Júnior told Jornal Nacional.
The single-engine plane, registered to Jetspeed Holding Ltda, was operating at low altitude when it started descending, based on initial reports referenced by Radio Gaúcha. Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency verified the plane was in valid airworthiness status but was not permitted to function as an air taxi.
Rio Grande do Sul state Gov. Eduardo Leite offered his condolences after the tragedy. “I have been following, since the very first moments, together with the security forces, the full mobilization in responding to the incident,” Leite said. He added his solidarity with the families of the victims and the community of Capão da Canoa.
The general Institute of Forensics came to the location to gather evidence and retrieve the victims’ remains. The Municipality of Capão da Canoa, together with the Military Brigade, kept maintaining security surrounding the crash location as the zone stayed sealed off.
Brazil’s Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents, a division of the Brazilian Air Force, is now overseeing the probe into what triggered the crash. Officials are reviewing why the plane struck the pole during takeoff and what caused it to descend so quickly.
The Aviation Safety Network has entered the incident into its database of aircraft accidents as investigators attempt to reconstruct the final moments of the flight.
The striking footage from Capão da Canoa has spread extensively online, depicting the frightening close call with civilians on the street beneath and the ensuing explosion that consumed the restaurant in fire. The images function as a harsh reminder of how rapidly aviation disasters can happen and the thin line between catastrophe and even worse tragedy.
