Plane crash in Brazil kills 62: Here's what we know about the investigation

Investigators worked Saturday to determine what caused a passenger plane carrying 62 people to crash in Brazil on Friday, killing all on board.

Regional airline Voepass, based in São Paulo state, said Flight 2283 was headed to São Paulo's main international airport, in Guarulhos. The flight departed from Cascavel, a Brazilian city near the country’s southern border with Paraguay and Argentina.

The carrier on Friday said the plane, an ATR-72 twin-engine turboprop, carried 57 passengers and four crew, but on Saturday confirmed another unaccounted for passenger was on the flight, increasing the number of casualties to 62 .

Emergency crews and investigators converged Friday on a residential neighborhood in Vinhedo, a city northwest of São Paulo, where the airplane crashed.

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Why did the plane crash in Brazil?

Investigators haven't given an explanation so far, saying it is too early to determine the cause of the crash. However, some experts have speculated that the plane's unusual final circling motion as it fell from the sky suggested ice had built up on the plane or it had experienced engine failure.

"Today ice was predicted (at the altitudes the plane was flying at), but within the acceptable range," Voepass Chief Operations Officer Marcel Moura said during a press conference.

"But the plane is sensitive to ice, that could be a starting point," Moura said, adding the plane's de-icing system, along with all other systems, had been deemed operational before takeoff.

Brazilian aviation engineer and crash investigator Celso Faria de Souza told Reuters that a buildup of ice could have caused the plane to stall and spiral in the way that it did.

However, the aircraft's pilots did not report an emergency or adverse weather conditions, Brazil's air force said in a statement. The aircraft was flying normally until 1:21 p.m., when it stopped responding to calls, and radar contact was lost at 1:22 p.m., the agency said.

The crash occurred about 1:30 p.m. local time in Vinhedo, about 50 miles northwest of São Paulo.

Did the plane crash in Brazil kill any residents?

One home in the condominium complex had been damaged after the plane crashed into its backyard, but no residents were hurt, city officials at Valinhos, near Vinhedo, said.

Nearby resident Daniel de Lima said he heard a loud noise before he looked outside his condominium in Vinhedo to see the plane spiraling horizontally. "It was rotating, but it wasn't moving forward," he told Reuters. "Soon after it fell out of the sky and exploded."

"I almost believe the pilot tried to avoid a nearby neighborhood, which is densely populated," de Lima said.

Victims mourned amid recovery effort

At least 31 bodies had been recovered and those of the pilot and co-pilot identified by 1 p.m. local time on Saturday, São Paulo state officials said. A Venezuelan man and Portuguese woman are among the dead, state civil defense official Roberto Farina said.

Relatives of the victims have been brought to São Paulo to provide DNA samples to help investigators identify the remains, state civil defense coordinator Henguel Pereira said.

The plane's "black box" with flight data and audio is being analyzed, Marcelo Moreno, the head of Brazil's Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (CENIPA), said at a press conference in Vinhedo.

Franco-Italian aircraft maker ATR, which is jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo, told Reuters on Friday that its specialists were "fully engaged" with crash investigators into the incident.

Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, the governor of the state of São Paulo, declared three days of mourning for the victims. Contributing: Minnah Arshad, Will Carless, Eduardo Cuevas and Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY, and Reuters .

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Plane crash in Brazil kills 62: Here's what we know about the investigation