7 Killed in plane crash in Brazil

Sao Paulo, Sep 14 (EFE).- All seven people aboard died Tuesday when a private plane crashed in a wooded area of Sao Paulo state, Brazilian authorities said.

Killed in the crash were Celso Silveira Mello Filho, a shareholder in energy company Cosan SA, his wife and their three children, along with the pilot and co-pilot, the firm said in a statement.

Celso was the brother of billionaire Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello, the chairman of Cosan, a major sugarcane grower and ethanol producer that is a partner with Royal Dutch Shell in the joint venture Raizen SA.

The aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air 360 turboprop, crashed at around 9:00 am shortly after taking off.

Images captured by security cameras showed the plane burst into flames as it made impact near a university campus in the city of Piracicaba, hometown of the Silveira Mello family.

Several fire crews were dispatched to the crash scene to put out the blaze.

Police said that an investigation will be launched to determine the cause of the accident. EFE

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