By Sebastian Rocandio

VINHEDO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian authorities began work on Saturday to recover the remains of a plane that crashed in the town of Vinhedo near Sao Paulo on Friday, killing all 62 people on board.

At least 31 bodies had been recovered by 1:00 p.m. local time (16:00 GMT) Saturday, the Sao Paulo state government said. The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot were identified, said Dario Pacheco, mayor of Vinhedo.

All bodies will be transferred to the police morgue in Sao Paulo.

The dead included a Venezuelan and a Portuguese woman, said Roberto Farina, a civil defense official, adding that local consulates had been contacted.

On Friday, regional carrier Voepass said there were 57 passengers and four crew members on board the plane, but on Saturday the company confirmed there was one more missing passenger on board, bringing the death toll to 62.

Authorities are identifying victims based on seat assignments, physical characteristics, documents and personal items such as cellphones, said firefighter Maycon Cristo, who responded to the crash site.

“Once all the evidence is collected, we will remove the victims from the wreckage and place them in a vehicle that will transport them to Sao Paulo,” he said.

Relatives of the victims were taken to Sao Paulo to take DNA samples that will aid identify the remains, state civil defense coordinator Henguel Pereira said.

The plane’s so-called “black box” containing voice recordings and flight data is being analyzed, Marcelo Moreno, head of Brazil’s Cenipa air accident investigation center, told a news conference in Vinhedo.

The plane, a turboprop ATR-72, was flying to Sao Paulo from Cascavel in Parana state when it crashed at about 1:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) in Vinhedo, about 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo. Despite crashing into a residential area, no one on the ground was injured.

The Brazilian air force said in a statement that the plane was flying normally until 1:21 p.m., when it stopped responding to calls, and radar contact was lost at 1:22 p.m.

The pilots did not report any accident or adverse weather conditions, the air force added.

Franco-Italian ATR, jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo, is the dominant maker of regional turboprop planes that seat 40 to 70 people. ATR told Reuters on Friday that its experts were “fully engaged” in the investigation into the crash.