What: Beechcraft A36 Bonanza en route from Pontes e Lacerda to Santa Fé do Sul
Where: Caceres, Brazil
When: 14-JAN-2012, 8 am
Who: 3 aboard, 3 fatalities
Why: A plane piloted by Antonio Carlos Lopes do Amaral (Carlos Lopes Antonio Amaral) 57, former president of the Mato Grosso state legislature crashed in Mato Grosso in torrential rain, killing all three aboard. The crash site was a ranch located 12 miles from downtown Caceres, Site Sao Paulo, San Francisco community. Also killed were Vitório Quarentão and João Batista Paulo do Carmo.
Local witnesses heard the engine sputter or fail three times before it went into a tailspin and fell into a marshy area.
The wreckage shattered, and it appears that DNA testing will have to be used.
Amaral has sister in Caceres, businesswoman Maridalva Vignard Amaral, owns a radio station. The family said Amaral’s body and his friend Victor will be transferred to Santa Fe do Sul via plane and taken to counter Pontes e Lacerda.
A team from the Department of Civil Aviation will be arriving in Caceres to start investigating the cause of the accident. Amaral leaves a wife and three children. John was single.
The plane is registered to Air Martins School of Civil Aviation.