Brazilian Air Force plane crashes into houses

A Brazilian Air Force training plane crashed into a central residential area of the northeastern town of Maceio today, the Defense…

A Brazilian Air Force training plane crashed into a central residential area of the northeastern town of Maceio today, the Defense Ministry said.

A statement from the ministry said the pilot and co-pilot had died in the crash after a complete loss of control of the plane.

Television images showed several houses reduced to smoking rubble. The small plane was on a training mission when the crash took place and local television said three people on the ground were injured.

At the end of September the Brazilian Air Force lost another plane when a Hercules C-130 transport plane crashed into coastal mountains near Rio de Janeiro, killing three of the nine people aboard.