On Jan 21, 2013 at 12:45, a Helimarte Bell 206B JetRanger III en route in light rain from West Zone of São Paulo to Campo de Marte Airport with four people aboard flying over a residential area in the neighborhood of Garden Corner, crash landed on two houses in Paul Street Arentino in Jaragua in the north of São Paulo near Highway Taipas.
A resident saw the plane approaching and saw that the rear propeller stopped. Witnesses in the house say there were electrical lines entangled in the helicopter.
Civil Defense roped off four properties as unsafe.
One person aboard did not survive the crash and three others aboard, all crew, were injured but conscious when they were found. One person on the ground was also injured. Some reports say two on the ground were injured. There were four people in one house that was crashed into.
The sole fatality was the pilot, Stella Melo Marcelo Araujo, who was 29, was single and had no children. The helicopter was an air taxi but the objective was a two hour flyover inspecting, monitoring and surveying regional park areas.
Ramiro Levy (Depave-1), Bishop Fabian Barbosa (Depave-5) and Idevanir Souza (Communication), all employees of the Municipal Green and Environment were injured. Two crew members were taken to Hospital and Clinics and one to the Hospital São Camilo Emergency Room.
Five teams were sent to the crash to deal with the injured, the wreckage and the leak in the helicopter. The helicopter’s certificate valid until December 8, 2016 and had passed it’s recent maintenance inspection.
Helimarte, who operates the helicopter that crashed on Monday in ??Jaragua, north of Sao Paulo, said in a statement that the accident was the first in the fourteen year history of 35 000 flights. Everyone aboard was employed by the City of São Paulo.
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