Brazil Plane Crash
A plane crash in the Amazon took the lives of 24 people, but four survived because they were seated near an exit.
Four people survived -- and 24 perished -- in a plane crash over the weekend in Brazil's Amazon River Basin. The four survivors escaped because they were sitting in the back of the turboprop plane near an exit. They were rescued by emergency teams after the plane crashed Saturday afternoon in the Manacapuru River.
"Before the fall, I was looking at the emergency door, but what sustained me was God," Brenda Dias Moraes told the local O Coariense newspaper. "I saw many people shouting, 'Open the emergency door.' I could not see anything in front of me. I am certain I was guided (by God)."
Another survivor described the struggle to get out. "When I opened my eyes and released the seat belt, I saw that all the chairs were in front," said Ana Lucia Lauria. "I turned toward the square that I managed to see, which gave the light of day. I guided myself there and left the aircraft."
Fisherman Edmilson Viana was one of the rescuers. "The great desire was to rescue more lives," he told O Coariense. "I could not do anything because I had no breath."
The plane took off from Coari, about 225 miles (362 kilometers) southwest of the state capital of Manaus, where the flight was headed.
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