Eight killed in Sao Paulo plane crash

An executive jet crashed in a heavily populated neighbourhood of Sao Paulo yesterday afternoon, killing eight people and injuring three others just months after the city suffered the nation's deadliest air disaster.

The plane, a Learjet 35 belonging to the Brazilian air taxi firm Reali Taxi Aereo, slammed into two houses shortly after taking off, the airport authority Infraero's spokeswoman Lucia Ferreira said.

The dead included four men, two women, a child and another person, Sao Paulo's state security department said. The three injured were taken to hospital. Authorities did not say how many of the dead and injured were in the plane or on the ground.

Onlookers saw the jet, which took off from Campo de Marte for Rio de Janeiro, plough nose first into the houses as it apparently tried to return to the airport.

Ms Ferreira said there were no immediate indications that it was related to Brazilian air traffic chaos including the July 17 crash of a Tam Linhas Aereas SA jetliner, which slammed into a building in Sao Paulo, killing 199 people.