2026 Rio de Janeiro mid-air collision
RG8 Aviation (Used by Turfik Comércio de Frutas Ltda.) Bell 206B JetRanger II and Private Eurocopter HB350 B Esquilo · Mid-air collision; under investigation
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA26WA216
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 6 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 6
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Unknown
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Aircraft 1 · Bell 206B JetRanger II
- Aircraft type
- Bell 206
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- PP-MAC
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Occupants
- 5
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Unknown
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Unknown or undetermined
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Eurocopter HB350 B Esquilo
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter HB350
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- PR-DJJ
- Operator
- Private
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Occupants
- 1
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From not recordedTo Carmelo Jordão-Angra dos Reis Airport
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 14 June 2026, two helicopters collided mid-air in the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood, in the southwest zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The victims were American singer-songwriter Oliver Tree, Argentine YouTuber Gaspi, Argentine director and screenwriter Lucas A. Vignale, Brazilian music producer Lucas Frota and pilots Alexandre Souza and Charles Marsillac.
Accident
The first aircraft took off from Angra dos Reis, and the second from Jacarepaguá, both in compliance with regulations. The aircraft collided at roughly 8:59 a.m. Brasília time, above the grounds of an abandoned church that had been rented by a BYD car dealership, on the block of Avenida das Américas between Beth Lago and Rivadávia Campos streets. The Bell exploded upon impact, causing a fire that affected about 20 cars. The column of smoke was seen for miles around, including from the Zico Football Center. The Eurocopter did not catch fire and crashed with its landing gear facing upwards. Fuselages were scattered within a radius of at least 100 m, with a tail section being found on the roof of a neighboring building. A security camera captured one of the helicopters falling. A witness reportedly saw one of the helicopters in flames, and a passenger jumping from another aircraft before it hit the ground.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center unit of the Brazilian Air Force and the National Civil Aviation Agency confirmed they will investigate the accident. The local fire department, the Traffic Engineering Company, and the 31st Military Police Battalion were working on the site. Local civil police requested a forensic examination of the site. Hours after the crash, Eduardo Cavaliere, mayor of Rio de Janeiro, said that there were "foreign nationals on board one of the aircraft" without specifying who. Fire services spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Fabio Contreiras said information was still preliminary, and that the crash could have been more serious considering the surrounding residences. Brazilian police investigator Alan Luxardo said that human error was a possible crash cause, noting that police were determining if the pilot or air traffic controllers were responsible.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2026 Rio de Janeiro mid-air collision” (revision 1374453907, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2026 Rio de Janeiro mid-air collision
- Revision
- 1374453907 · 2026-09-12 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q140202632
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record GAA26WA216
- Event ID
- 20260614203172
- Case number
- GAA26WA216
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2026 Rio de Janeiro mid-air collision" (page 83453101, revision 1374453907); merged with NTSB case GAA26WA216 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record GAA26WA216
- Operation
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): Aviation Safety Network (news-based; CENIPA investigation still open), https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/572385
- Ground fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): Aviation Safety Network (news-based; CENIPA investigation still open), https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/572385
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2026 Rio de Janeiro mid-air collision" and NTSB case GAA26WA216, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Death toll settled: the NTSB record (GAA26WA216) gives 9 and the Wikipedia article 6; Aviation Safety Network (news-based; CENIPA investigation still open) gives 6. ASN and Al Jazeera report all 6 occupants of the two helicopters killed (5 in the Bell 206 PP-MAC, 1 in the AS350 PR-DJJ). The crash set cars on fire, but the fire service reported no deaths or injuries on the ground. No source supports the NTSB's 9, so it is a notification error; there is no final report yet.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.