Brazilian Fans Mourning Band Killed In Plane Crash

Fans lined up 10-deep outside a morgue Sunday to mourn one of Brazil’s hottest rock bands whose members were killed when their private plane crashed into a mountainside.

All five members of the band, Mamonas Assassinas, two assistants and the pilot and co-pilot were killed Saturday when a chartered Lear jet crashed outside Sao Paulo. There were no survivors.

The band was returning from a sold-out concert Saturday in Brasilia and was to fly Sunday to Portugal to work on a second album. Its first album, “Mamonas Assassinas,” has sold 1.9 million copies since its release last year.

So many fans gathered outside a roped-off morgue in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, that troops were sent to keep order. Other fans lined streets and waved white handkerchiefs from apartment windows as ambulances carrying the bodies went by. Some mourners wore black armbands.

Brazilian radio and television stations carried live reports along the route and at the morgue Sunday, just as they had done as troops and firemen pulled the bodies from the wreckage.

The cause of the crash has not been determined. The jet hit a mountain in the Serra da Cantareira range moments after traffic control at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport had given the pilot approval to begin landing.

Appealing mainly to teenagers, Mamonas Assassinas used raunchy lyrics to promote a youthful image.

Band members killed in the crash were Alexander Alves, 24; Julio Rasec, 27; Samuel Reoli, 22; his brother Sergio, 26; and Bento Hinoto, 25.