Rescue of bodies from plane crash should take a week

The Brazilian authorities confirmed that all 155 people aboard the commercial plane that crashed on Friday in the Amazon forest have died in the accident. The rescue operation to retrieve the bodies from the crash scene should take a week, due to the difficult access to the area where the plane fell. On Friday, a Gol Airlines flight from Manaus to Brasilia crashed after reportedly being hit by a smaller plane near the border between the states of Para and Mato Grosso, in northern Brazil. The plane, a Boeing 737-800, was found on Saturday, when the first members of the Brazilian Army arrived on the remote location of the crash.

The smaller plane, an Embraer Legacy, was carrying American businessmen and Brazilian employees of the aircraft maker Embraer. The jet had just been purchased in Sao Paulo and was being flown to the United States. Despite suffering some damage to the wing in the crash, the Legacy was able to safely land in a nearby airbase. The American pilots said they did not see the Boeing, just a shadow, and heard a loud bump. Authorities are still trying to determine why the two planes were allowed to fly so close to each other, leading to the accident.