A small plane crashed early Wednesday near the Brazilian city of Recife after reporting an onboard emergency, killing all of its 16 occupants, rescue officials told AFP. The Noar Linhas Aereas plane, which was bound for Natal, the capital and main city of Rio Grande do Norte in north-eastern Brazil, crashed within 10 minutes of taking off, authorities said.
"The information from our crews working at the site of the accident is that there are no survivors," a spokesman for the Recife fire department told AFP. The twin engine aircraft was completely incinerated in the disaster, which left a wide area of denuded terrain where a fire had ignited the crash site, officials said.