THE bodies of a missing pilot and his passenger were discovered on Christmas Day in the wreckage of a horror plane crash. Authorities had been searching for Rodrigo Boer Machado, 29, after he took off on a routine flight on 20 December - and found his body five days later.
![[A video grab of the scene of the crash]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/bodies-missing-pilot-29-passenger-960076479.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Alarms were raised on 21 December when the Cessna aircraft, registration PT-JCZ, did not present a flight plan. It did not appear on air traffic control's radar either. Images shows horrific scenes at the crash site located in what appears to be a practically inaccessible area of the Amazon rainforest.
![[Pilot Rodrigo Boer Machado's body was discovered]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/bodies-missing-pilot-29-passenger-960076437.jpg?strip=all&w=686)
The 29-year-old had told his family that he had been hired to fly from Porto Velho to Manaus. Machado was accompanied on the hour and a half flight across Brazil by a 27-year-old passenger named Breno Braga Leite. The last GPS location for the doomed plane was over the southeast region of Manicoré.
![[Rodrigo Boer Machado died in the horror crash]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/bodies-missing-pilot-29-passenger-960076456.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Search parties spent several days trying to find the pair, as well as the plane. But finally, on Christmas Day, the wreckage was discovered. The search was conducted by the FAB with help from the civil police, military police, fire department and sniffer dogs.
![[The horror crash occurred in December]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/bodies-missing-pilot-29-passenger-960075850.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The location of the plane crash proved to be incredibly difficult to access due how woody the rainforest is. Both victims are believed to have died due to injuries sustained in the crash. Machado’s family travelled to Amazonas from São José do Rio Preto to retrieve his body.
![[Machado’s family travelled to Amazonas from São José do Rio Preto to retrieve his body]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/bodies-missing-pilot-29-passenger-960075946.jpg?strip=all&w=690)
