Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Three dead after small plane crashes into residential building

WARNING: DISTRESSING FOOTAGE

Three people are dead after a small plane crashed into a residential building in the major Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte.

The pilot and co-pilot died on impact, while three other passengers were severely injured and rushed to hospital, the Minas Gerais state fire department confirmed.

One of the passengers later died of their injuries. The other two remain in hospital.

Remarkably, firefighters said no one inside the building was injured, and there is no “apparent risk” of the structure collapsing despite the impact.

Confronting footage shows the small aircraft circled the residential area before it rapidly lost altitude and plummeted into the three-storey building.

According to firefighters, the plane hit the building’s stairwell, which may have prevented more casualties.

“It hit between the third and fourth floors, in the stairwell,” a fire department officer told G1 News.

“If it had hit the sides, it could have struck some residences; those apartments were occupied, according to information. What we saw was the structure of the aircraft projected inside the stairwell, without hitting any other apartments.”

The plane took off from Teofilo Otoni with six people on board. It then landed at Pampulha Airport in Belo Horizonte where two people disembarked and one boarded.

The aircraft then took off again, and was bound for Sao Paulo before the crash.

According to data from the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center, Brazil recorded 153 air accidents in 2025, with a death toll of 62.