Brazil buries pilot who died in plane crash that killed 62, as questions remain about its cause

SAO PAULO (AP) — The pilot of the plane that crashed down in Brazil last week was buried Monday in Sao Paulo, becoming the first person laid to rest among the 62 victims, as authorities continue working to determine what exactly caused the accident.

A hearse bearing the casket of Danilo Santos Romano rolled through the streets of Penha, a working class neighborhood of Sao Paulo’s east side, en route to the cemetery that lies beneath his apartment. Family members and friends walked behind the vehicle and dozens of shop owners who knew him as a regular customer gathered on the sidewalks to applaud as it passed. Romano was 35.

Clesio Moura, one of the applauding shopkeepers, said he met the pilot two years ago.

“He had lived abroad, worked for foreign companies, but was always humble," Moura said. "We used to chat about soccer, he really wanted to have a child to take to the stadium one day. Danilo was full of life.”

The crash Friday killed 58 passengers and four crew members. Footage of the plane plunging while in a flat spin horrified people around the world, and the cause of the accident has yet to be determined. Some experts have pointed to the possibility of severe icing on the wings, which caused pilots to lose control of the plane, but airports minister Silvio Costa Filho told reporters Friday that Romano and his copilot made no calls for an emergency landing, nor did they communicate any adverse weather conditions.

They were flying the ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop for local airline Voepass, headed for the Guarulhos international airport, but the plane plunged from the sky in the nearby city of Vinhedo. Romano had just finished his first full year as commander for Voepass, which hired him as a copilot in November 2022, the airline told the AP in a statement. It added Romano had logged 5,202 hours flying for Voepass, all in ATRs. It is the only type of plane the company owns.

Romano's widow, Thalita Valente Machado, didn’t speak to journalists gathered outside the ceremony, but provided a letter with a list of the people and organizations she wished to thank.

“We want to give a very special thanks to his flight partner Humberto de Campos Alencar e Silva, who fought together with Danilo," her letter said. “We are sure they did everything possible and that they are heroes.”

Romano’s burial followed a wake at a basilica Monday morning. One of the pilot’s heroes, the former goalkeeper for Brazil’s national soccer team and World Cup winner Marcos, was in attendance. Two of Romano’s friends told the AP that during the ceremony his 30-year-old widow repeatedly said “I lost a part of myself.”

Romano's body was the first to be released by Sao Paulo's morgue after the crash. The morgue began receiving corpses Friday evening, and asked victims’ relatives to bring in medical, X-ray and dental records to help identify them. As of Monday evening, forensic experts had identified 17 bodies and returned eight to victims' relatives, Sao Paulo state's government said.

Meanwhile in Cascavel, the city from which the doomed flight departed, more than a dozen families are awaiting the remains of their loved ones. Mayor Leonaldo Paranhos said on his social media channels that the city will make a conference center available should anyone wish to hold a collective wake in the space.

“We are still waiting for information from Sao Paulo's morgue, which is still working to identify the bodies and communicate with the families,” Paranhos said. “Voepass will be responsible for sending the remains to their destinations.”

Authorities recovered both the plane’s “black boxes” — one with flight data and the other with cockpit audio — that are key to determining what exactly went awry. The air force’s center for the investigation and prevention of air accidents began analyzing them at its laboratory in the nation’s capital, Brasilia, and said it will issue a preliminary report within 30 days. Minister Costa Filho said the center was also opening a criminal probe.

Voepass and French-Italian plane manufacturer ATR are collaborating with the investigations, they said in separate statements.

Firefighters and rescue teams work at the site in a residential area where an airplane with 61 people on board crashed the previous day in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Firefighters and rescue workers work in the debris at the site where an airplane with 61 people on board crashed in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Saturday Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Firefighters and rescue workers work in the debris at the site where an airplane with 61 people on board crashed in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Saturday Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

The debris at the site where an airplane crashed with 61 people on board, in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, early on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. Brazilian authorities are working to piece together what exactly caused the plane crash in Sao Paulo state the previous day, killing all 61 people aboard. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Thalita Valente Machado, bottom center, leaves Penha Cemetery after burying her husband Danilo Santos Romano in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. Romano was the pilot of the plane that crashed into the backyard of a home in the city of Vinhedo on Aug. 9. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Friends and relatives of Danilo Santos Romano leave Penha Cemetery after his burial in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. Romano was the pilot of the plane that crashed into the backyard of a home in the city of Vinhedo on Aug. 9. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

The coffin of Danilo Santos Romano, 35, is taken to his burial site at Penha Cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. Romano was the pilot of the plane that crashed into the backyard of a home in the city of Vinhedo on Aug. 9. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The German government says it is cracking down on irregular migration and crime following recent extremist attacks, and plans to extend temporary border controls to all nine of its frontiers next week.

Last month, a deadly knife attack by a Syrian asylum-seeker in Soligen killed three people. The perpetrator claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State group. In June, a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left a police officer dead and four other people wounded.

The border closures are set to last six months and are threatening to test European unity. Most of Germany's neighbors are fellow members of the European Union, a 27-country bloc based on the principles of free trade and travel. And Germany — the EU’s economic motor in the heart of Europe — shares more borders with other countries than any other member state.

The Polish prime minister on Tuesday denounced the closures as “unacceptable” and Austria said it won't accept migrants rejected by Germany.

Here's a look at some of the issues:

The EU bloc has a visa-free travel area known as Schengen that allows citizens of most EU countries to travel easily across borders for work and pleasure. Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland also belong to Schengen even though they are not EU members.

According to the EU, member states are allowed to temporarily reintroduce controls at the EU’s so-called internal borders in case of a serious threat, such as one to internal security. But it also says border controls should be applied as a last resort in exceptional situations, and must be time-limited.

Such limitations are often put in place during major sporting events, including the recent Olympic Games in Paris and the European soccer championship this summer.

Nine countries border Germany and all are part of Schengen. Germany already imposed restrictions last year at its borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland.

Germany's Interior Ministry on Monday ordered the extension of checks at those borders, as well as controls at borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the aim was to limit irregular migration and protect the nation from “the acute dangers posed by Islamist terrorism and serious crime.”

The government and many Germans welcomed refugees fleeing conflicts in Syria and elsewhere from 2015-16, when more than 1 million asylum-seekers entered the country.

But as large-scale migration to Europe continues nearly a decade later, a backlash is fueling the growth of far-right parties.

Some people say social services are overwhelmed, and extremist attacks by asylum-seekers have led to security fears. It has added up to growing support for firmer immigration policies — and in some cases, backing for the far-right parties that champion such limits.

The unpopular coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is trying to crack down on irregular immigration after the far right did well in two recent state elections in eastern Germany. Another comes Sept. 22 in Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin.

As the EU's largest economy, Germany is a key trading partner for neighbors. The interior ministry's announcement has prompted economic worries for the main Dutch transportation lobby group, the Dutch Association for Transport and Logistics. It said the decision was undermining the Schengen principle of free trade and it fears major economic damage.

At home, Germany's DSLV logistics and freight association urged a selective approach that would spare trucks moving goods across borders — which would mirror what occurred during the European soccer championships. Those checks avoided economic disruptions because officials focused on individuals and not trucks, the association said.

Dirk Jandura, the president of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services, said in an statement to The Associated Press that restrictions on the free movement of people “always mean delays and thus cost increases for the economy and especially for wholesale and foreign trade.”

He added: "However, if migration policy findings require restrictive measures, then this is understandable. For us, it is important to implement the measures with a sense of proportion.”

The ruling conservative government in Austria — which is facing a tight race against the far-right party in an election this month — says it will not accept refugees who are turned back from Germany.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told reporters that Germany has the right to send people back if another EU country is responsible for their asylum application. But that would require a formal procedure and the consent of the member state concerned.

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called Germany's plan “unacceptable" and called for urgent consultations by all countries affected. Poland has struggled with a migration crisis on its border with Belarus since 2021. Warsaw accuses Belarus and Russia of luring migrants from the Middle East and Africa there to destabilize the West.

Agnieszka Łada-Konefał, deputy director of the German Institute of Polish Affairs, said random checks at the German-Polish border create traffic jams that make it more difficult for people to cross for work and discourage Germans from shopping in Poland. Poles also argue that Germany first introduced a policy of openness to refugees but is now pushing them back to Poland.

“Due to the negative perception of the influx of migrants in Poland, any report of migrants being returned by Germany also negatively affects Polish-German relations and Germany’s image in Poland,” Łada-Konefał told the AP.

But in the Netherlands, where the anti-immigration Party for Freedom won last year's election, the minister for asylum and migration pledged to step up Dutch border controls as well.

Slovenia, Austria and Italy also have extended temporary border controls in some areas or all along their frontiers.

Associated Press writers Mike Corder in Amsterdam, David McHugh in Frankfurt and Philipp Jenne in Vienna contributed to this report.

Follow AP migration coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/migration

FILE - A border pole in German national colours marking the German border with Poland at the river Oder near the city Lebus, Germany, Oct. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - A Federal Police officer escorts a group of migrants who illegally crossed the border from Poland into Germany during a patrol in a forest near Forst, southeast of Berlin, Germany, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - Federal Police officer Frank Malack looks at the belongings of migrants who illegally crossed the border from Poland into Germany during a patrol in a forest near Forst, southeast of Berlin, Germany, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - German federal police officers check a van at the Austrian-German border crossing point in Kiefersfelden, Germany, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)